A TASK force of willing volunteers will descend on St John's Church, Devizes, on Saturday to clean it from top to bottom following emergency work to replace the heating system.

Engineers are this week checking out the new system and hope to be able to hand the church back to the parochial church council.

John Stevens, chairman of the St John's Way Ahead appeal that is trying to raise £750,000 for extensive improvements to the 12th century church, said it is hoped the place of worship will be open again by Ash Wednesday, which this year falls on February 9.

The former garrison church to the medieval Devizes Castle closed over Christmas, possibly for the first time in its history, after a consultant engineer told the parochial church council that the heating system was no longer serviceable and the congregation was likely to freeze during services.

They were suddenly faced with a £60,000 bill, not only to replace the boiler, but to dig up and renew the entire complex of pipes and radiators that possibly date back to the turn of the 19th century.

All services and other events booked into the church had to transfer to St Mary's over the other side of Devizes town centre.

Both St John's and St Mary's featured in John Schlesinger's 1969 film of Far From the Madding Crowd.

Because the congregation of St John's had just shelled out over £100,000 to replace the roof and carry out urgent repairs to sections of masonry, Mr Stevens felt obliged to widen the appeal to all sections of the Devizes community.

He said: "We are nearly three-quarters of the way to our £60,000 target.

"We have had a lot of co-operation from all the other churches in Devizes, who recognise that St John's is more to the town that just its parish church.

"The business community has also been incredibly generous.

"I am confident we shall find all the money we need to cover the new heating system."

Mr Stevens initially hoped the church would reopen in time for Easter but the work has been completed well ahead of schedule and it will be ready to receive its first worshippers early next month.