WORK has begun on the £142,000 restoration of St Edburg’s Church in Bicester.

The project aims to repair and restore the Grade 1 listed building’s stonework and drainage as it had become badly damaged by weather over the years.

St Edburg’s recently received grant funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the building work.

The church’s client representative Ian Cribbes said the building in Church Street had been listed as having special architectural or historic interest and is on English Heritage’s “at-risk” register.

He said: “It is nearly 1,000 years old so it is a very significant building as far as English Heritage are concerned.

“This project will restore the stonework and drainage system.

“That will stop any damp getting into the weak stone and will prevent it from becoming dangerous.

“It had started to get weather-beaten.”

Badly damaged areas of stonework will now be taken down and replaced with stone to match its original form and the existing stonework.

Mr Cribbes added: “We were hoping we could recover some of the stonework but were unable to.

“It will all be done to look as if it is the original stone, so it is quite a mammoth task.”