Villagers celebrate end of four-year church steps project (From This Is Wiltshire)

Villagers celebrate end of four-year church steps project

3:17pm Tuesday 16th March 2010 in

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A group of retired residents from a village near Westbury have restored their local church’s 18th century steps, saving the parish council £10,000 in the process.

The Bratton Monday Gang meets every Monday to look after the grounds of St James’s Church.

After four years of work, they have now completed renovating the church’s 211 steps from the church down to Salcombe Water and up to the vicarage.

The steps were installed by Rev Pailleat, who built the bridge because his congregation were dragging in mud from the muddy path along banks of the stream.

Bratton Parish Council has wanted to restore the steps ever since the early 1990s but couldn’t raise the £10,000 plus the cost of materials to undertake the project, so in 2006 the Monday Gang took up the task.

David Paw, 71, is one of the Monday Gang’s 12 members.

He said: “We had to redirect the stream and reinforce the banks of the stream with stone and we also planted willow trees.

“The stones for the steps came from the stream itself.”

A new bridge over the Salcombe stream was built by local carpenter Martin Osborne, 59, and made from oak from the Longleat estate near Warminster.

The steps were officially open by parish councillor of 28 years, Kathleen White, on Monday.

She said: “The steps were in a very bad state and were hollow in some places because they had been so worn.

“We’re very grateful to the Monday Gang – they’ve done a lot for the village.”

Anita Whittle, clerk of Bratton Parish Council, added: “The area is a credit to all those who have put in many hours lovingly restoring our village's hidden treasure.

“Without the gang the parish council would, I am sure, still be trying to raise the funds to start the project let alone complete it.

“The village owes every member of the Monday Gang a debt of gratitude.”