AFTER years of planning, the £400,000 redevelopment of Chesham's St Mary's Church has begun.

Contractors Hawkins & Frewin have won the contract for the work based on a design by church architect Robert Potter, OBE. They started on Tuesday.

The project includes a new Purbeck stone floor and a new stone dais to be placed under the tower which will project into the nave.

A new west gallery for up to 50 people, an organ loft, a disabled toilet, kitchen and a new clergy vestry with a meeting room above will also be built.

The Rev Roger Salisbury said: "Despite having had our patience tested by delays during the approval process, the timing now seems ideal.

"We can look forward to being back in St Mary's for the millennium celebrations. The delays have given our membership and friends time to get fully behind the plan and give the money necessary.

"It is wonderful that over £600,000 has been raised in the past few years to pay for both church and church rooms. This means that only the cost of rebuilding the organ has to be found."

Chris Marsh, the church's project manager, said: "It is 130 years since Gilbert Scott Junior remodelled St Mary's under the remarkable leadership of the then vicar, the Rev Adolphus Aylward, and now it is our generation's turn.

"This is a most exciting project and I feel privileged to have the mandate to work with The Saram Partnership and Hawkins & Frewin to ensure the work is completed on time and on budget."

The church will continue to run services in the Church Room, Church Street, until November.

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