MOVES in Throwleigh to make the parish church a focus for community events are taking shape, with a fundraising campaign to install new facilities.

A recent concert was held at St Mary's Church raising more than £800, the first event organised by the friends of the church group set up earlier this year.

The aim of the group is to encourage the use and enjoyment of the ancient building and raise funds to maintain its fabric and extend its use.

Friends' group member Jane Wisniewski said: 'We want to put a toilet in the church because at the moment if we have any events we need to hire in a Portaloo.

'We only have a few services a month here because we have to share a rector with several other parishes, but this is a beautiful old building and we want to get more people who are not necessarily church goers using it.'

The friends need in the region of £16,000 to install toilet facilities and are hoping to acquire some grants as well as raise money themselves.

Another friends' member, Dave Hatton, said the friends' group started when the church was used during the Throwleigh Festival last year.

He said: 'The congregation was really pleased to see the church used for other events and in this day and age, unless a church is used sufficiently it may not be around in ten years time.'

Mr Hatton said the village hall was about a mile out of Throwleigh so St Mary's was the obvious focus for the community and a real landmark.

'A lot of people visit the church, which had its first recorded rector in 1248,' he said.

'It's a very interesting building. It has an Easter sepulchre which is like a tomb that was originally used for the re-enactment of the Easter story and quite an unusual feature, and a medieval carving of three hares and the Green Man carved into the roof bosses.'

He added that there were lots of other ideas for making the church more user-friendly including taking out some of the pews and creating a creche area.

'We have quite a lot of young children in the village and there really is no comfortable place for them to meet at the moment, so this is an idea for the future,' he said.

Anyone with fundraising ideas or who wants to volunteer for the friends of St Mary's group please contact chairperson Dawn Hatton on 01647 231051.

l The inaugural concert event was performed by the Batignano Trio which comprises three talented musicians Susie Hodder-Williams, Chris Caldwell and Graham Roberts. Although all three have played with orchestras around the world, Susie and Chris are now based in Throwleigh so it was a very appropriate beginning.

The trio performed a variety of music from Bach to Welsh folk songs but the centrepiece of the evening  was the world premier of a new work by the composer Stephen Goss.

The next planned event is on October 16 at 7.30pm, when Sue Andrew will explain the context for the rich legacy of medieval carving to be found in many parish churches. Donations will be welcomed.