ARTIST Audrey Carr is joining the fight to save a threatened abbey from erosion - with a painting of the 1,000-year-old ruins.

The Richmond-based artist is raffling the watercolour and pastels picture of Easby Abbey and its surroundings to help swell a fund to preserve the site.

Erosion has already claimed a popular footpath from Richmond to the nearby abbey and is now threatening the future of the abbey itself. Much of the shale river bank was washed away when heavy rain swelled the Swale earlier in the summer and experts fear the abbey could be swept away within 20 years.

Campaigners aim to raise £70,000 to make a new channel in the centre of the river to take the water away and to shore up the bank. Mrs Carr said: "What was a lovely walk has been ruined and if we don't do this work the water will entirely take the abbey ruins away."

The autumn-set picture shows the lane leading to Easby church, including the ruins and the nearby granary. Tickets will be sold at a strawberry tea in Richmond Town Hall on Monday afternoon. The draw will take place within a few weeks