Bat colony stops church repairs

An exhibition at the chapel will include the bats

Restoration work on a church in Leicestershire has had to be stopped after a colony of bats was discovered in the roof of the building.

The Baptist chapel in Diseworth village was being repaired with a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to convert it into a heritage centre.

Work was halted after about 25-30 long-eared bats, some of them pregnant and nursing, were found inside.

The 254-year-old chapel's restoration should restart later in the year.

School project

Parish Councillor Martin Hening, who is also the chairman of the Diseworth Heritage Trust, said: "The building was flooded in 2000 and we have been working ever since first to buy it and then to restore it as a heritage centre."

His wife Nikki said the villagers were not unhappy about the bats.

"I have managed to get a DVD with an infrared camera film and shown the film of the bats in the roof to the local school children, who have been very interested and they have all followed it up with a study," she said.

The building work will continue once the bats have finished nesting and the new heritage centre will re-open in spring next year.

An exhibition in the centre's museum will feature the building's bat colony.