Newspaper article from November 2006 regarding the reordering plans at St Andrew's Church, from the Essex County Standard.

A CHURCH is looking to the past for its future.

For the last 120 years, St Andrew's, in Church Lane, Marks Tey, has had a predominantly Victorian feel to its interior, with a tiled floor on seven different levels.

Now, however, work is progressing which will take the 12th century building even further back in time.

By next spring, it will be turned into an open, single-level space as it would have been in the Middle Ages, though with plenty of 21st century touches.

A yorkstone floor will cover a new heating system, while the old pipe organ will be replaced by an electronic model.

The £150,000 scheme also includes a sound system with a loop for the hard of hearing, improved lighting, new kitchen, disabled toilet and furniture.

The rector, the Rev Richard Morgan, said the floor would once again conceal the burial vaults of three members of the Bree family, who were responsible for the church's restoration in the 1730s, and that of the Rev Peter Wright, who died 160 years ago.

"The aim is to provide a completely user-friendly church building, with some sort of coherence inside," he said.

"So although it looks very nice already, it will look even nicer. We hope the works will take no longer than six months."

Fundraisers have so far collected about £128,000 towards the total, with organisations such as Colchester Council, the Friends of Essex Churches and the Cory Environment Trust donating just under £60,000.

The balance has come mainly through church members' donations and from Marks Tey residents and groups.