THE mammoth task of re-roofing Ripon Cathedral at a cost of £512,000 is entering its final phase, with thousands of new slates set to go in place.

Fundraising for the roof by the cathedral's development campaign, which attracted a 60pc grant from English Heritage, is being wound down with the target already reached.

Major donors have been invited on to the rooftop to see the work at first hand.

Apart from giving visitors dramatic views over a large area of the county, people making the trip to the top have been amazed by the enormity of the task to be completed in September, having started early in the new year.

Cathedral development fund campaign manager Margaret Hammond said visits to see the rooftop work had made a lasting impression on donors.

Before work started, buckets were strategically placed to catch rainwater from the leaking roof.

Already, fundraising campaigners are moving ahead to raise £150,000 a year to help pay for the annual running costs of the choir.

Officials of the fundraising campaign have been impressed by the number of smaller donations. One totalling £64 from Bardsey Brownies near Wetherby led to the Dean of Ripon, the Very Rev John Methuen, presenting the pack with congratulatory certificates before a congregation of 1,000 at a recent service.

There was also the three pound coins - dubbed the modern day Widow's Mite - from a pensioner with affectionate memories of the cathedral. She now lives on the south coast.

On June 27, Newby Hall, near Ripon, will be the scene of a mid-summer lunch. And, on Thursday, Ripon Cathedral Choir will take up an invitation from the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Rowan Williams, to take part in a reception for London-based backers of the cathedral choir project at Lambeth Palace.

Last September, the cathedral broke new ground by raising £10,000 from a black tie dinner. The event is being repeated in October, with tickets at £65 per head or £600 for a table of ten already selling.