HEREFORD'S St Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church has been restored to more than its former splendour.

It has taken exactly one year to refurbish the inside of the Broad Street church at a cost of £390,000.

More than £200,000 was raised by local people, the rest was English Heritage and lottery money.

The church was built in 1830 in Greek revival style but there was not enough money to pay for the inside to be decorated in the same way.

With the new refurbishment scheme this has now been made possible.

The tabernacle, a copy of the one in St Peter's in Rome is outstanding. When decorators stripped off the old paint they found the original gold colour and this has been preserved.

The new money has made it possible for pillars to be marbled, the shrine which contains the relic of St John Kemble's hand to be highlighted and all the statues to be repainted

The public was able to see the evidence yesterday (Wednesday) when pupils from St Francis Xavier School attended the first service in the re-opened church to celebrate the day of its namesake, St Francis.

Services in St Francis Xavier Church will return to normal this weekend with mass on Saturday evening at 6pm and on Sunday at 8am and 11am.

More events to celebrate the refurbishment of the inside of the church which was once threatened with closure and demolition, will take place in January.