A church which sees 30,000 people visit per year are celebrating after they finally received water supply after waiting for 14 weeks.

St Michael de Rupe Church on Brentor was relying on two portaloos since Easter as South West Water has been unable to reinstate their water supply.

The idyllic church holds multiple weddings and baptisms at the historic site but has faced troubles accommodating their visitors since their water supply was turned off.

One visitor resorted to desperate measures and defecated next to the toilet block on the site.

West Devon Borough Council, Geoffrey Cox’s office and the wider community pleaded with South West Water for months to bring back the supply and on Tuesday, July 22 the toilets finally started working again.

Cllr Robert Oxborough, said: “I met a gentleman in the church car park who was visiting the tor because his wife was undertaking an arduous cycle ride from Land’s End to way up north and this was one of her toilet stops. There has been lots of people that I have met who have found not having access to proper toilets quite distressing.”

The antiquated water system was switched off due to fears that there was a risk of contamination in Tavistock’s water supply. But the church was left with no support until the water eventually came back on.

Michael de Rupe church relies solely on donations and had to pay £250 a month for the portaloos.

Helen Harris, Churchwarden for St Michael de Rupe Church, said : “Since we took over the church has spent thousands of pounds on getting the toilets to work, only for South West Water to cut the supply off. West Devon Borough Council have been very generous and offered us a fair amount of compensation which is more than twice what South West Water have offered.

“For the first eight weeks nobody from South West Water would talk to us at all so that made life very difficult. We’ve had 30,000 people visit here every year and in May alone we had over a thousand people enter the church.”

St Michael de Rupe Church was given the site which holds the car park and toilet blocks as a community asset just before Christmas with the intention of keeping the toilets free and open for more hours.

The church was founded in 1130 and is the highest working church in southern England.

A spokesperson for South West Water said on Tuesday: “We apologise for the inconvenience caused to St Michael de Rupe Church. An engineer is attending today [Tuesday, July 22] to reconnect the supply directly to the main, bypassing the church’s underground storage system. This work is being carried out as a gesture of goodwill.

“We’ve offered to cover 50 per cent of the church’s costs for temporary facilities. We’ve also advised that they consider installing additional storage and a pump to help maintain supply during periods of high demand.”