A TRUST fund which contained only £1,500 has rocketed in value to £43,000 after a church forgot about it for 60 years.

St Mary's Church, in Barnard Castle, has plans to carry out a £500,000 redevelopment project which will see major improvements to its interior.

But the church council has found that the parish unknowingly already had almost ten per cent of the funds needed.

Money raised from the sale of an old farmhouse in the town has risen in value to more than £43,000.

The money had been lost until a few years ago, when the then church treasurer, Keith Miles, came across a reference to it in some old correspondence.

Bede Kirk farmhouse, which stood where Barnard Castle police station now stands, was bequeathed to St Mary's Church in the 1930s and sold to developers in 1946, after it had fallen into disrepair.

Although the initial sum raised was only £1,500, it was invested under the care of five trustees and interest has since been paid into the church's account. As each trustee died, the money was lost and succeeding generations of churchgoers knew nothing of the money invested on their behalf.

That was, until 1999, when Mr Miles discovered a reference to 'the Bede Kirk Trust' and undertook some detective work.

In accordance with Charity Commission guidelines, five new trustees were appointed who decided to transfer the lost investment to the care of the Church council.

Since the transfer, the council has decided to use the fund towards its Development Appeal, which was launched at the start of the month.

Mr Miles said: "It took a long, long time to track down the money, and we had to keep on digging.

"It's been great because we were finally able to get there, and it has turned out to be a bigger sum than we thought. Plus we can say that it belongs to the church.

"The money was always to be used to improve the church, so to use it for this project is very much in keeping with its original purpose."

The Reverend Alec Harding, of St Mary's Church, said: "It has been wonderful approaching this massive undertaking knowing that the first building blocks of the appeal are in place.

"Keith Miles' detective work, coupled with the financial astuteness of our predecessors, has given the appeal a flying start."

The reordering of St Mary's Church will involve a new digital organ in the west end, a labyrinth in the south transept, changes to the pews and a new servery