A CHEQUE worth £12,500 has been presented to a church which had to have vital repairs following storm damage.

Dorset Historic Churches Trust donated the sum to the Church of St Mary the Virgin, Charminster, last month at a special Evensong.

The money was awarded for repairs, maintenance and restoration work.

The Grade One listed church was flooded in 2014 when the River Cerne burst its banks. A large area of the churchyard was covered with floodwater.

The Parochial Church Council decided to replace the Victorian woodblock flooring with stone paving.

The opportunity was then taken to install underfloor heating using an eco-friendly air source heat pump to help reduce heating costs.

During this time, work was also undertaken on the road bridge adjacent to the church, in order to reduce the chances of water overflowing the banks in the future.

Last month's Evensong was conducted by the Vicar of St Mary's, the Revd Canon Janet Smith and the Rt Revd Karen Gorham, the Bishop of Sherborne.

Parishioners were given the chance to thank the DHCT and the National Churches Trust (NCT) for the grants.

Simon Pomeroy, chairman of DHCT, commented: "We are delighted to be able to award this grant to St Mary’s. The repair works which we help to fund are often desperately needed. We rely on fundraising activity and donations by our many supporters and especially the Friends of the Dorset Historic Churches Trust to make our work possible.

"We would like to say thank you to everyone who took part in our annual Ride+Stride fundraising event in 2015 and hope as many – if not more – people will join in the fun in September this year."

The annual Ride+Stride event is the charity’s main source of fundraising. The event involves around 200 parish and church communities across the county and last year's total raised £84,000.