A MOSSLEY church has been given the answer to its prayers after scooping a £220,000 grant towards vital maintenance work.

St John the Baptist — a Grade Two listed building — has been awarded the English Heritage Lottery funding towards the cost of repairing its spire.

The structure, which is 130 years old, has been patched up in the past, but needs hundreds of thousands of pounds of investment to restore it to its former glory.

Marion Bentley, a warden at the Carrhill Road church, said: "The spire is fragmented and in a dangerous condition and although we’ve had emergency work done we knew it was only a temporary repair.

"We started fund-raising over two years ago and have had all sorts of social events, but we also knew there was no way we could raise all the money ourselves, so started applying for grants.It’s been very hard work and there is still work to do but we are over the moon."

Parishioners have been praised for their hard work by the Rev Cathy Nightingale, who took up residence at St John’s in May and has promised to join in the fund-raising drive.

"Even though they were without a vicar for two months they’ve just got on with it and I’ve promised to help as much as I can," she said. "I’ve asked them to challenge me to do something but they haven’t come up with anything yet!"

Tamesiders can help the effort by supporting a strawberry tea at St John’s at 2.30pm on Saturday.