LOTTERY funding has been set aside to tidy up a churchyard near Ludlow.

The £16,000 award has gone to to the Caynham Churchyard Open Spaces Project.

It has come from the Community Spaces programme of the Big Lottery Fund and will be used to renovate St Mary’s Churchyard in Caynham near Ludlow.

The work will be carried out over the next 12 months by local craftsman and volunteers and will include the creation of a new open space available to the public.

Remedial and improvement works will include tree surgery, scrub and soil clearance and hedge planting.

The application was kickstarted by an initial investment of £800 provided by the Lottery Fund through Groundwork UK used to cover the cost of a safety survey on the monuments and a tree survey as well as a public consultation.

"We believe that this project will both help us to preserve the churchyard as a valuable village asset and also enhance our sense of the community in a small village which three years ago was the Calor Shropshire Village of the Year,” said churchwarden Stephen Ashford.