A THEOLOGICAL college has won approval to alter the historic church where ancestors of the Queen Mother are buried.

St John's College, part of Durham University, ran into opposition when it announced the £230,000 scheme for St Mary-the-Less, in the shadow of Durham Cathedral.

The church, which dates from the 16th Century and was largely rebuilt after a fire in 1860, has served for many years as the college chapel and for training Church of England ordinands, lay workers and Methodist ministers.

For more than 20 years the college has wanted to make changes, mostly inside the listed building, to make it more suitable for the purpose.

Its plans included removing the fixed rows "collegiate'' seating and replacing it with more flexible seating, removing the existing chancel furniture and reducing the floor to one level.

It also proposed installing a disabled access ramp from South Bailey and through the graveyard to the parsonage, which would be revamped.

The ramp plan sparked fears from the City of Durham Trust and some parishioners that the graves of the Bowes-Lyons, distant relatives of the Queen Mother, would be disturbed.

The college's bid for permission from Church authorities was opposed and a consistory court was ordered to hear the case.

The church withdrew the most controversial elements of the scheme which had attracted objections.

Dr Stephen Croft, warden of Cranmer Hall, part of the college, said the layout of the church had long been described as "cramped and inflexible".

He told the court that ordinands needed to study different forms and styles of service and learn to work in churches of different shapes and sizes.

"It is important from a training point of view that the flexibility is there.''

The Bishop of Peterborough, the Right Reverend Ian Cundy, president of the college council, said: "This is a very sensitive re-ordering of a building whose architectural merit has, I believe, been partially obscured through the re-orderings of our predecessors.''

The Chancellor Rupert Bursell QC granted faculties for the scheme, although he said some elements would not have been approved in an ordinary parish church.

He approved removal of the choir pews and the existing altar - which he said must be retained in the quiet room planned in the parsonage