Appeal by Gazeley parish church, between Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket, to replace its roof and save carvings of national importance raises £120,000 in less than a year

Work is under way to replace the chancel roof of a village church less than a year after an urgent fund-raising appeal was launched to raise the £120,000 needed to save the remarkable secret hidden beneath it.

Simon Gash, church warden at the Grade I-listed All Saints’ Church in Gazeley and fund-raising committee member, said: “We have been extremely successful with our grant applications including getting £88,500 from the National Lottery and I have little doubt that was because of the tremendous support there has been from our parishioners for this appeal.”

Like the custodians of most ancient churches in small parishes, the villagers who number less than a thousand, have regularly been called upon to raise funds for repairs and refurbishment and only a few years ago had to help find £50,000 to replace the lead on the main roof.

When the roof over the chancel at the east end of the church was found to be leaking an estimate of more than £100,000 was received for its repair, with more than 10,000 hand-made clay tiles in a mix of colours needed to replace the original roof.

What gave the appeal, which was launched on October 19 last year, its urgency was a series of unique early 16th century carvings on the wagon-vaulted ceiling referred to as secret because they are too small and too high up to be seen clearly from the ground, which may have contributed to their survival.

They were discovered in 2018 by historian and photographer Simon Johnson, who made a record of the strange and wonderful images which form the basis of his book Men, Myths and Monsters while leading academics have said they are a unique artistic treasure of national significance.

The chancel roof is currently covered with tarpaulin as the tiles are being specially made by the Bulmer Brick and Tile Company based near Sudbury and work has to be done when it is least likely to disturb roosting bats in the church. Mr Gash said he hoped it would be complete by the first week in December.

The next phase of the project will be aimed at conserving the roof carvings and will start with a detailed survey of their condition. They include a man baring his bottom, which is thought to represent a sort of mediaeval mooning at the devil and a sort of merman, lying on his back with with one leg in the air using his enormous foot as some sort of parasol.

“This will involve specialist conservators,” said Mr Gash. “They are also likely to carry out a trial cleaning to assess what will work.”