REPAIRS to a graveyard wall at Llanegryn Church are close to being completed, 15 months after it collapsed into a neighbouring field exposing several graves and headstones.

Neighbour Nathan Brady, the owner of the field the wall collapsed into, said that thieves “made off with several human artefacts including skulls and headstones” following the collapse of the 10-­metre section of wall in March 2016.

The whole area was fenced off and locked down as debris was strewn across a public footpath, in a scene Mr Brady described as a “bombsite”.

In March, the Church in Wales said it was “working on an amicable agreement with its neighbours for permission to enter their field to rebuild the wall”, and that work is now nearly complete.

The church said a “celebration of thanksgiving” for the repairs at St Mary and St Egryn’s Church – near Tywyn – will be held on Saturday.

Also on the day, the church will be showing people for the first time the results of a project which has seen the outside and inside of the church painstakingly photographed and then modelled to give 3D images of the church building, which will soon be available to the public on the internet.

St Egryn’s is a Grade I listed building, which has an important medieval rood screen and barrel-vaulted ceiling. It is said the rood screen came from Cymer Abbey, near Dolgellau, at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536.

Rev Janet Fletcher, associate priest in the Bro Ystumanner Ministry Area, said: “We know that there has been a church on this site since 1253 and parts of the building in which we worship today were built over 750 years ago.

“Repairing the ancient boundary wall and having the 3D images are the means by which this present generation can ensure that this building can look forward to the next 750 years.”

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