A TWELFTH century church in Great Ayton has received a quarterly electricity bill for more than £3,000 - despite having no lighting or heating.

The only concession to the modern world All Saints' Church has allowed is the installation of a single power socket for the use of cleaning equipment and for guides to occasionally boil a kettle.

The quarterly bill for this use, mainly standing charge, has been about £12 over the last few years.

Robin Harmar, church treasurer, was therefore highly amused when he recently received a bill from supplier, npower, for £3,377.91 for the last quarter.

On examining the bill, he found it was an actual, not estimated, reading. Naturally, he decided to query it and was asked to provide a meter reading. Following this, he was asked to provide the number of the meter and was then told npower could not accept his figures. He is still awaiting a reply.

The vicar, the Rev Paul Peverell, is equally amused and wonders whether they are being charged candlepower, the old unit of luminosity.

He said: "When the treasurer opened the bill he burst out laughing.

"There's no way we could use that amount of electricity from one socket. You would have to leave an electric fire on all year to run up anywhere near that amount."

A spokeswoman for npower told the D&S Times on Wednesday: "We realise there are problems with the church's account and we regret any inconvenience or upset this has caused.

"However, we are endeavouring to fix that as quickly as possible and will get in touch with them as soon as we can."

Over the years the church was the main place of worship for villagers, among whom was Great Ayton's most famous son, Captain James Cook, whose mother, Grace, two brothers and three sisters are buried in All Saints' churchyard.

Following the building of Christ Church in 1876, All Saints' was closed and left to deteriorate until early in the twentieth century.

Despite restoration, it was decided that no lighting or heating would be installed. Lighting is entirely by candles and heating is not required as, for special out of season services, the church is generally packed to capacity, especially the Christmas carol service, and everyone arrives muffled up against the weather to keep each other warm