MAKING a scale model of the Church of St John the Baptist in Beckford is a real labour of love for Paul Buckley.

Paul, of Rose Cottage, almost in the shadow of the church, began the project in June 2002 and aims to have it finished and on display in church by the time of the golden wedding of he and his wife, Doreen. They were married in the church, Doreen was christened there and her parents were also married there.

"It is proving a big challenge," he said. "At a scale of 40 to 1 things like chairs are so tiny but everything has to be exactly to scale for it to be right. Because of the scale, I have had to make practically everything myself, even tiny tools with which to do the work."

Paul is a skilled horological toolmaker who retired in 1995 and converted a former pig cot at the bottom of his garden into a workshop where he has already spent many hours on his model, a project sparked off when he saw a model of a village church in Truro.

Doreen is playing her part by dressing the interior of the model with items such as the altar cloth and flag standards, again exact in every minute detail.

Electronics housed inside the tower will raise the roof of the model to the sound of church bells - a recording of a peal rung at Mr and Mrs Buckley's silver wedding - and organ music by church organist Basil Bunn, revealing the interiors of the Nave and Chancel.

"When I started I discovered there were no detailed plans of the church so it was literally back to the drawing board," Paul said. "Measurements had to be taken from top to bottom, inside and out. We had to drop plumb lines to determine the tower height and subsequent relationships to roof apexes and roof angles."

One of the first jobs in construction was to commission a steel frame from local blacksmith Peter White to hold the model level and counter any movement in the wooden structure which will eventually be clad in local Cotswold stone.

The wooden structure is made mainly from plywood, with the exception of the interior arches which were carved from hardwood. All dimensions for the profile had to be reduced by a quarter of an inch, the chosen thickness of the Cotswold stone cladding. All sections had to be removable to allow access while work continues on the church interior. To ensure accuracy in replacement all panels were doweled and screwed together.

A total of 32 windows had to be made, some carved directly into the wooden structure while others were hand carved and pinned into position. The lead diamond profile in the west window is depicted with thin strips of black cellotape sandwiched between layers of Perspex. The stained glass windows were photographed, digital images transferred to thin sheets of adhesive and sandwiched in a wooden frame.

The church clock mechanism has been fixed in position, but Mr Buckley has to make a replica clock face.

"When the model is eventually in church, I hope that it will be possible for people to put a pound in the slot to activate the mechanism to start the bells, followed by organ music and raise and lower the church roofs to reveal the interior," Mr Buckley said.