A MEDIÆVAL cross removed from Peter Tavy 160 years ago is to be replaced before Christmas.
The cross, believed to have been built in the 14th or 15th centuries, was taken down from outside the church in 1840, to allow carriages and hearses into the churchyard — hitherto coffins had been carried by pall-bearers.
The project to restore it has been fraught with difficulties and delays, not least due to the weather, but organiser Roger Meyrick of Peter Tavy Parochial Church Council said they expected to have the cross back in place by December 15.
Mr Meyrick said the base stones were put to one side when the cross was removed and eventually used in the churchyard wall from where they were recovered. The top base stone, heavily engraved, was also recovered.
'That's the essential part of the cross,' he said.
The team chased up half a dozen reports about the other parts of the cross to no avail and replacements have been shaped by a stonemason from granite provided by Dartmoor National Park from Merrivale Quarry.
'That is being used to make the shaft and cross similar to what they might have looked like in their original form,' said Mr Meyrick.
The project was originally going to be grant-funded along with a raft of other millennium proposals by the parish council, but when grant applications failed the PCC took on the job.
That created its own difficulties in that the project was no longer VAT-exempt and the demand by Customs and Excise for £600 has contributed to an increase in costs that has brought the total to almost double the original estimate of £2,000.
Mr Meyrick said he would be writing to them in view of recent charity VAT changes announced by the Government, but did not really expect them to reduce their demand.
The village newspaper — the Peter Tavy Piper — distributed by e-mail to the descendants of villagers living in Canada and Australia, has brought in fresh donations, but the PCC still needs to raise an additional £1,500.
A short service of celebration has been organised for midday on January 1.