REPAIR work on Westbury on Severn’s medieval church spire has ground to a halt as repair costs have gone - quite literally - through the roof.

Contractors working to remove and replace 35,000 wooden shingles from the upper section of the 160ft spire of the Church of St Mary, St Peter & St Paul have discovered that the wooden framework beneath is completely rotten.

The estimated £600,000 has now jumped by an extra £270,000 and could eventually lead to a total bill of close to £1million.

“It is much worse than anyone had anticipated,” said churchwarden Simon Phelps. “It is a complete can of worms.

“We will now have to go back to square one and negotiate the extra money if we can and in the meantime the scaffolding will have to be dismantled.”

A spokesman for Gloucester diocese said: “An assessment is currently underway to estimate the additional cost of the necessary work. Sadly, this means that the works cannot be fully completed in one single phase as we had hoped.

“Due to the historic significance of the tower, we are confident that more grant funding will be available to complete the repairs in due course; but it will take some time to apply for these additional grants.

“In the interim, the tower will be covered to protect it from the elements and the scaffolding will come down.”