RESIDENTS and builders came out to celebrate the rebuilding a boundary wall of a village church yard.

When the wall surrounding St Agatha’s Church in Easby, near Richmond, was completed, villagers held a topping-out ceremony – an event usually held when the shell of a building on a major project is erected.

Residents marked the occasion of the re-built wall with a strawberry tea in the grounds.

Church warden Hazel Austin said last year’s wet weather and an overflowing spring had caused problems to the ancient drystone wall surround the church.

She said: “The wall has needed extensive repairs and finally rebuilding completely.

“In this situation the Marauders - a group of volunteers who maintain the churchyard – step in. “We kept them fuelled with coffee and cakes and now we have a splendid drystone wall.”

She added: “We know that up to the dissolution of the Monasteries, the road past the church went through the arch of the Abbey Gatehouse several yards to the east of the present wall.

“This was confirmed when North Yorkshire County Council put in a drainage pipe, and the remains suggested former buildings were found in the road way.”

Ms Austin said she thought it was likely this was the first major work to be done on the wall since the road was diverted about 250 to 300 years ago.