Major works at a village church for repairs and maintenance have forced it to partly close to visitors.

St Mary’s at Walkhampton is normally open daily to visitors, but is now only open to regular Sunday worship and occasional special occasions.

The £500,000 project is due to finish at Christmas and includes preventing rainwater flooding down the walls inside the tower, the replacement of water damaged wooden floors and the repair of a stained glass window. The project is funded through grants and generous donations.

The Rev Andrew Thomas, the rector of West Dartmoor Mission Community, said: “The works at the church have been in the planning stage for over a year, and are now well underway.

“The issues arose when the pointing work on the outside of the tower started to fail, and was letting in a very very large amount of rain water, to the extent that in the winter months it was running down the inside of the wall of the tower like a shower in one's bathroom.

“This water ingress has resulted in very wet wood work in the ceiling/floor of one of the tower rooms. Working with our architect are Le Page Architects we have had the ceiling/floor removed and taken away to be dried out and repaired.”

The church has taken the opportunity to use the scaffolding to remove the west window and have it repaired by specialists and have the faulty pointing replaced/repaired on the outside of the tower.

The Rev Thomas said: “Our aim is to reduce the water ingress and the damage it can cause, as we will not be able to stop it entirely due to the nature of the stone used, and the restrictions placed on heritage buildings.

“It is our hope, based on a timeline of works, that the ceiling/floor, west window, and re-pointing will be compete by Christmas. Until then the church is closed to visitors, and open for Sundays services.”