A CHURCH, which was put out of commission almost a year ago when a lump of ceiling came crashing down, will be in use again on Christmas Eve.

It will be reopened in style with the Christmas Carol event, traditionally the biggest service of the year, at 6pm.

It was on December 22nd last year when the ladies of Timsbury were decorating St Andrew's Church at Timsbury in readiness for its Christmas services that a heavy slab of ceiling fell to the floor.

It measured about seven feet by four and churchwarden John Glasspool recalled: "That was the only piece that fell, but we could see there were other cracks in the ceiling and we felt it wasn't safe to continue using the church."

The church was closed and for the next six months services were held in the living room of Dr Glasspool's home in Stockbridge Road, with permission from the Diocese of Winchester.

More recently, the congregation has joined in the services at nearby Michelmersh Church.

But the £20,000 ceiling renewal, which got under way in September was being completed this week.

Dr Glasspool's fellow churchwarden, Catherine Baker, had been standing in the spot where the plaster landed only seconds before it fell.

"All the foliage and flowers I was using was in that area and I had just walked away from it with a handful of foliage," she said. "And only seven or eight days before that, we had had a Russian choir in the church and it was absolutely packed," she recalled.

But no one was hurt and no more plaster came down. Now it is a race against time to get everything ready for Christmas, with a working party preparing for a big clean-up tomorrow (Saturday).