A VILLAGE church is hoping to build a new entrance and office costing about £100,000.

The church council of All Saints Church, in Hurworth, near Darlington, has announced its intentions to build the entrance to make the church more accessible.

It is hoped the entrance will be designed to be welcoming to visitors, but will also be large enough to house an office.

The Reverend Roy Graham, rector of All Saints, is leaving his post in November and it is hoped the new office space will make the job more attractive, so the vacancy can be filled as soon as possible.

Mr Graham said: "The group of parishes does not have an administrative centre, which means the rectory has become an office instead of a private home. This will need to be addressed urgently if we are to attract a new rector who will expect to be provided with the facilities to do the job."

As well as providing space for the rector to work in, staff at the administration office would be able to give parishioner access to the church, which is presently kept locked between services.

Mr Graham said: "The church has to be locked for security reasons and therefore is not available as a place of peace and quiet for everybody.

"Building a new church entrance and incorporating into it office facilities would mean the church could be open for everybody when the office was staffed."

English Heritage, Darlington Borough Council and the Durham Diocese have approved the proposal, and a detailed plan has been drawn up to show what the finished entrance would look like.

Tenders to carry out the work at the church were sought and the lowest bid was £100,000, although this tender has now expired.

Mr Graham said: "The church council looks after the church's money, but obviously does not have the funds to carry out that much work.

"The church council did not feel able to accept a tender now, but has reaffirmed its wish to complete the project when possible.

"We don't really know what we are going to do, and if we do go ahead how are we going to raise £10,000?"