IF you’re passing St Mary’s in Lydney on a sunny day you may just catch a fresh glint of gold at the top of the steeple - the church’s newly-refurbished golden cockerel.

Specialists have repaired and re-gilded the copper cockerel for the first time in 50 years thanks to funds raised through the St Mary’s Church Trust.

Video footage (above) shows the moment engineer Matt of Weston-based firm Dawson Steeplejacks accessed the steeple to fix the gleaming cockerel back in its rightful place at the very top - some 197 feet off of the ground.

The bird has been taken away to be re-gilded with gold leaf, its comb given a fresh coat of red paint and repairs to its tail and legs along with a pipe that runs through the middle of it.

Matt said of the project: “There were some rope access chaps doing some stone masonry here in August so we put our ladders up initially for them, and saw the bird was in need of a bit of TLC.“

Church warden Simon Moore explained: “Re-gilding it seems a bit of a luxury but it’s the access that’s the expensive part of this process, and once you’ve got somebody up there you may as well take advantage of it. We needed to do something to it because it was starting to wear a bit.”

It is not known exactly how old the cockerel is but Dawsons and Simon think it may be late Victorian or Edwardian, and was possibly refurbished in 1974.

“The Spire was last rebuilt in 1897, but I found a photograph from 1974 and on the back somebody had written ‘new cockerel’.

“So it may have been new in 1974 but they may have meant ‘freshly re-done’, you never know.”

Before the cockerel soared above Lydney once again a dedication was read by Reverend Canon Mike Kippax outside the church, watched by children from Buds to Bloom nursery, which is based in The Old Vicarage next door.

Simon said they’d kept the children updated on the project as some of the nursery’s rent, paid to the church trust, was used to fund the repairs.

The children had been shown the cockerel in its weathered state when it came down and were there to see it unveiled in all its glory before it was reinstalled.

Reverend Kippax said: “Jewish rabbis held cockerels in high regard: ‘Blessed are you, Lord our God. King of the Universe, who gives the rooster understanding to differenciate between day and night’.

“If you’ve ever lived within earshot of a cockerel, you may have reason to dispute this blessing, for they do have a reputation for heeralding the dawn with rather too much enthusiasm

“Pope Gregory I (590-604) said that the cockerel was a most suitable emblem of Christianity.

“If you know the story of St Peter’s denial of our lord, you will recall that it was a cockerel that noisily announced his denial.

“And so we dedicate this fine bird: May our wonderfully refurbished cockerel stand high, in silent witness to your faithful people here who are never tempted to deny their knowledge and love of you, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Amen.”