A VILLAGE'S hopes of retaining its redundant church as a public meeting place appear to have been dashed.

St Hilary's Church in Picton was closed in February last year after internal cracks developed in two arches.

The loss of the tiny, Grade II listed church, built in 1911 and designed by the renowned architect Temple Moore, has forced villagers to meet in residents' homes.

Linda Mottram, chairman of Picton Parish Meeting, said: "We asked the Church if they would give us the building to retain as a landmark, because we have no other public building. They said they could not do this, as they are a registered charity, so we asked them to sell it to us at a nominal price.

"We have been waiting for over a year to find out what was happening. Now we have been told by the Property Trust and Investment Committee in York that they can't sell it to us and they are putting it on the open market."

She added: "We don't know what is going to happen to it. All I have is a letter saying they are putting it in the hands of an agent. We don't know how much they are asking for it. We don't even know who the agent is."

Picton has a population of just 124, and Mrs Mottram said it was too small to raise enough money to buy the church at the going rate.

"It's a great shame," she said. "We can't even build a new village hall, because there is no common land to put it on."

Parish meetings and village events such as the harvest festival and Christmas carol service now have to be held in private houses. The vicar, the Rev Mark Allsopp, visits once a month to give communion in a resident's home..

Mrs Mottram said: "All the parish meetings used to be held in the church and a lot of people, per head of population, turned up at them. One man let us hold the last parish meeting in his house and we all squashed in. I had the harvest festival in my house and 47 people turned up."

She added: "The vicar has been very supportive. He is new to the parish, and all this was done before he got here. One of the first things he had to do was tell us the church was closing."

Mrs Mottram said despite the difficulties, villagers were determined to carry on as best they could. She said: "Where there's a will, there's a way and we will keep going.

* The mysterious disappearance of Picton's Liberty Stone, reported as stolen last week, was resolved when a local man revealed he had taken it away for safe keeping. A meeting will be held to decide where it hould be relocated.