A Thringstone community group has started an online appeal to try and raise funds to repair a church wall - and "protect the history and heritage of our village".

Friends of Thringstone wants to restore the 112-year-old wall at St Andrew's Church after it collapsed last year.

At the time, the fallen stones partially blocked the path from Main Street through to Loughborough Road.

Last month, members of the village community gathered them up and placed them within the churchyard.

But it emerged that the cost of rebuilding the wall would be in the region of £7,000.

In order to try and meet that cost, Friends of Thringstone has set up a GoFundMe page HERE where people can donate individual sums.

Nita Pearson, of Friends of Thringstone, said: "Friends of Thringstone was set up in 2005 to work with and for the village of Thringstone.

"In our aims and objectives, we said that we would work with other organisations, businesses, individuals and the village as a whole to make Thringstone a better place in which to live, and would seek to protect its heritage.

"With that in mind, and given that we fundraised in 2012 for repairs to the grave of Charles Booth - which lies within the churchyard at St Andrew's - when the stone wall by St Andrew's church fell down in October 2022, we felt that we should try to work with the village to get the wall rebuilt.

"This was not an easy challenge, as, despite hours of research, conversations with church, councils and others, we discovered that nobody has ownership of the wall.

"It is a stand alone structure with no maintenance cover or procedures in place for things like wall collapse.

"The wall was built in 1911 and runs from Main Street through to Loughborough Road.

"The area of collapse is close to the entrance to the church, and for some months it was difficult, if not impossible, for people (especially those with walking frames, push chairs or wheelchairs, to get into the church by the usual means.

"This impacted terribly on baptisms, weddings, funerals etc., and also on the ability for the council crews to remove refuse from the churchyard.

"Legal advice was sought, and it was felt that we should try to secure the stones for any future rebuild by moving these to a place of safety as the county council were intending to clear the public footpath into which the wall had fallen and take all the stones away.

"We realised that, should the stones be taken away, the cost of any repair work would be astronomical, so over a couple of days in early June, members of the community got together to remove the stones from the footpath, and place them within the churchyard, with the agreement of the St Andrew's community.

"Having saved the stones, we set about trying to get quotes for the repair from reputable stone wallers used to this sort of work, and these came in at £7,000.

"Appreciating that this is a huge amount of money, and again with a lot of discussion and legal advice, we felt the only way forward was to set up a GoFundMe page and see if we could raise money to get the work carried out, without any recourse to ourselves, as we do not own the wall, and without any obligation being taken on for long term maintenance by our group as a whole or by any individuals within it.

"Please give this some consideration, as even in these hard times, we feel it is important to protect the history and heritage of our village."