CHURCH-goers are celebrating the vital repair work which has been carried out to the leaky roof a historic building.

The work has been done to repair the church tower and roof of St Helen’s, in Kelloe.

The grade one listed church is famed for being the first place of worship of Victorian poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning and attracts international visitors because of a rare stone carved cross.

Church warden Robin Millerchip said: “We’ve done the most urgent work to the tower and church and we’ve been able to take down the scaffolding.

“We’ve still been using the church but the amount of dust and dirt has been unbelievable.

“There is still work to do but at the minute we are happy to celebrate that the first part of the work has been completed.”

They raised around £140,000 for the first phase of work, including £94,900 from the Government-funded listed places of worship roof repair fund, contributions from Durham County Council, help from the Co-Op and fundraising by the parish.

Mr Millerchip added: “For a parish of modest size it’s no mean feat. It would defeat many parish churches in more wealthy areas.

“Part of that was grant funding from a government scheme for places of worship. Without that we wouldn’t have achieved the target but we had to raise over half of the money ourselves .”

But parishioners still have more fundraising to do as more work is needed to repair the 11th century church, which could come to around £340,000.

They are hoping to get a Heritage Lottery Fund grant in the region of £250,000 but will have the raise the remaining money themselves to ensure the work to replace the mortar in the walls is done.

The building is open to visitors every Saturday and Sunday through the summer, between 2pm and 5pm.

Among the things to be seen at the church is a rare 12th century cross to St Helen, the empress and mother of the Christian Emporer of Rome, Constantine, which is broken into six pieces and was discovered in the wall of the church in the 19th century before being restored in the 1970s and going on display in London.

It also has an original 19th century royal coat of arms to George III, stained glass windows and a plaque to Barrett Browning, who was born at nearby Coxhoe Hall and was christened at St Helen’s in 1808.

The church will also be holding special events as part of the national Heritage Open Days scheme in September, which this year will be themed around Barrett Browning.