A MADLEY pensioner is offering his collection of lovingly restored horse brasses and harnesses to raise funds for a monastery in north Peru.

Dick Hayes, aged 86, is responding to a plea from Father Joseph at Belmont Abbey who desperately needs funds for the abbey's monastery at Tambogrande.

"Father Joseph needs the wherewithal to do his work and has appealed to the parishioners of Belmont for help. Dick has visited Peru on three occasions, and knows well the poverty and problems of the area," explained Mr Hayes' daughter, Kathleen Parry.

The monastery was founded in 1981 after Belmont Abbey monks answered a request to send missionaries to the scattered parish, which has a population of 85,000, spread over an area as large as Herefordshire.

The developing monastery is now attracting a number of Peruvians to the vocation. This means the Belmont parochial input has been reduced, but there are still 30 villages and 25,000 people in the monk's care, with Father Joseph serving as parish priest.

The brasses will be offered for sale at the parish room at Belmont Abbey on June 24 and 25, from 10am to 2pm. All proceeds go to the Belmont monks in Peru.