INVESTIGATIONS initiated by the Plymouth Diocesan authorities have indicated that the ongoing structural problems to The Church of Our Lady and St Mary Magdalene in Tavistock are largely attributable to a poor drainage system.

Earlier this month the church in Callington Road heard that it had been granted £35,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage.

A report prepared by English Heritage, following its survey of the building, confirmed the findings and identified 'developmental needs' — a process of identification and quantification of specific structural defects and drainage deficiencies which they were prepared to support.

Jack McFadden, a parishioner who is helping to advise the church on the ongoing works, told the Times: 'The estimated cost of this procedure is £9,000 and English Heritage have made an offer of grant of £7,000 towards the cost of this stage of the work.

'They have in addition made an offer in principle of £28,000 towards the costs of the the actual repairs, which is the second stage of the work.

'Parishioners are actively involved in a variety of fundraising activities to meet the costs of maintaining the church — a mammoth task in today's repressive financial climate.'

The church has much to commend it and indeed was recently given the English Heritage Award for the South West for the efforts of the congregation in securing the  future of the church as a place of worship.

The church was built in 1865. It was commisioned by the Duke of Bedford  to provide  a place of Anglican worship for the miners during the expansion of the town that followed the growth of the copper industry.

Following the decline of the latter the church became redundant and unused between 1918 and 1936. It was subsequently re-opened by the Catholic Diocese of Plymouth in 1952.