A MEDIEVAL church in Iffley has been awarded a £10,000 Heritage Lottery grant to help visitors and local communities more deeply understand its Norman heritage.

The parish church of St Mary the Virgin will develop and run 'Living Stones', an all-age, all-ability programme beginning in the autumn.

Local schools, families and visitors will be offered a set of activity days and an Iffley-based adult programme involving local history and music societies will support the work. A number of trained volunteers are likely to be involved once the project begins.

Vicar The Rev Andrew McKearney said: "St Mary’s is a holy space which attracts some 21,000 visitors and worshippers each year.

"With this grant we will be able to enhance their experience by exploring and explaining what the church has to reveal in its architecture, fine carvings and the lives of those who built this magnificent Romanesque church."

St Mary's was built in 1160AD and is considered one of the best examples of Romanesque architecture in a church of its period in England.

It is also renewing heating and wiring with a grant from the Oxfordshire Churches Preservation Trust and will begin work in 2017 to apply a lime-based shelter coat to protect it from the weather for another 30 years.

New volunteer co-ordinator Penny Tyack said: "Iffley Church is a magnet for the curious and the more we learn, the more we realise we are in the presence of a key component of our heritage.

"This grant will enable us all to share our understanding and love of this wonderful building with its growing number of visitors and worshippers and to have a lot of fun while doing so."