IT IS the historic Hampshire church that was destroyed by a fire but is now being restored to its former glory.

In 2014 a blaze caused by an electrical fault ripped through St Andrew’s Church, Timsbury, destroying half of it, causing £250,000 worth of damage.

But now worshippers are celebrating as, brick by brick and stone by stone, the 15th century church is being rebuilt.

Work to put in a new bell tower has started and worshippers watched on by worshippers, as a huge timber frame was erected by builders.

The repairs will also see the church ‘modernised’.

The church will have a new kitchenette installed and due to work at the west end of the church, it will mean the capacity will increase to 120 people.

While A CCTV system will be installed along with an upgraded heating system, that will enable the church can be open more often For the last 18 months the congregation have been using various bases in the area for services including Jubilee Hall and Poppy’s Tea Rooms in Timsbury and St Mary’s Church in Michelmersh and in Timsbury.

They will mark the completion of the building work with a celebratory opening service in January, although there were hopes it would re-open in December, but this is unlikely due to internal work.

The restoration work is paid for by insurance and St Andrew’s Church warden John Glasspool, said: “It has felt like a very long process so far. I suppose you could say we are very lucky that, unlike Ropley Church, we were not completely destroyed.

“We are making the most of out of a bad situation, this is a clean slate for us to really make the church somewhere for the whole village to use.

“It is wonderful to see the skill of the builders, they are doing amazing work using massive timbers. The church has been there in its current form for 500 years and we hope it will be good for another 500 now.”

Mr Glasspool also praised fire fighters whose bravery helped to save the church from burning down to enable the repairs to take place.

He added: “The church members are that were there were very grateful to the fire fighters because they managed to rescue managed to take out some of the more valuable items from St Andrews while the fire was going on. They did a wonderful job.”