AFTER six years hard fundraising, St Mary's Church in Lifton can finally boast a beautiful new roof — and a celebration time capsule hidden underneath it.
Local people have raised around £90,000 towards the £130,000 total cost of repairing the ageing roof of the 15th century church which had also been damaged by death watch beetle.
A grant from English Heritage made up the balance.
Churchwarden Dilwyn Hughes said: 'It's looking beautiful — some of the carpentry work up there is as good as furniture in your own house, they were really meticulous workmen.
'It's been completely re-roofed using old tiles and most of the old slates — some of them were in excess of three feet long. They're very heavy,' said Mr Hughes.
He said the time capsule contains a map of Lifton village, a parish map, old photos of the Ambrosia factory and the old A30, a millennium mug and hymn book and a celebration millennium candle, similar to hundreds distributed around the parish last Christmas.
The hiding of the time capsule will be recorded in the church log book, with the recommendation it remains unopened until 2100.
The Rev John Heath, rector of Lifton, said fundraising to pay for the new roof was a community effort involving coffee mornings, jumble sales and a variety of other events.
'It was a lot of hard work organised by a small group of people. The roof was last fixed at the end of the 1800s — some of the beams are probably over 200 years old,' said Rev Heath.
'It was a huge amount of money but it was either that or close the church.'
Rev Heath said the new roof was 'beautiful' and once the scaffolding is removed 'the church would look very good indeed'.
'It was a worthwhile job and hopefully it will last for another 100 years,' he said.