HOLY Trinity Church at Privett will provide the back-drop over the weekend of May 26-27 for a flower festival based on the theme ‘All Things Bright and Beautiful’.

Designed to raise much-needed funding for essential repairs to this landmark building, the festival will comprise floral displays reflecting lines and verses from this well-known hymn, as interpreted by local societies and organisations, with a special corner of the church dedicated to children of Froxfield Primary School, the Privett Montessori School, and Rainbow Nursery.

According to festival organisers Teresa Brown and Rosianne Pack, the Churches Conservation Trust surveyor has identified the need for external works to the north transept and gable, which will include flint work to the north wall, replacing and tying-in of detached flints, repointing and the capping of the chimney using hydraulic lime grout and stainless steel ties, and the replacement of slipped and missing tiles from the roof.

And the £10,000 cost will be exacerbated due to the need for scaffolding.

Built from 1876-1878, the church was funded by William Nicholson - a local benefactor and gin distiller - and designed by Gothic architect Sir Arthur Blomfield, later responsible for the Royal College of Music.

Blomfield used the best craftsmen of the day to produce the magnificent stonework, mosaics and stained glass.

The spire of Holy Trinity soars high above the trees, visible for miles around in an idyllic corner of Hampshire. It is an extraordinary experience to find this lavishly decorated medieval-style church with Italian marble mosaic floors in such a rural location.