THE authorities at St John's parish church, Bromsgrove, are counting the cost of having to remove a giant birds' nest from inside the top of the lofty spire.

The cost of clearing the 15 feet thick almost impenetrable tangle of debris and droppings, accumulated by nesting jackdaws over a period of more than a century, is set to cost more than £3,000.

Last month we reported how the problem had surfaced when steeplejacks engaged to check the crumbing fabric of the Grade I listed building had found it impossible to examine the final 30 feet or so because of debris.

The birds entered the spire through ventilation slits and heaped a mass of sticks and other rubbish on a platform some ten feet across the width of the octagonal spire.

A trapdoor was also blocked.

Three steeplejacks using special breathing apparatus worked in ten-minute relays from the top of ladders fixed to the inner, backward sloping, wall. They raked the rubbish out and let it fall some 60 feet to the bell chamber below where a three feet deep layer formed.

By the time the work was finished on Monday it had taken them eight days to complete.

Jenny Ashmore, chairman of the church fabric committee praised the men for having done a good job in extremely difficult circumstances.

"They could only work in short bursts because of the physical demands and dust clogging their apparatus," she said.

Now Aston Fields firm Keep Clean will spend three days bagging the rubbish and lowering it by rope to the ground. She also praised the stirling work of bell captain Paul Evans. He regulary clad himself in protective clothing to keep the bells free for use at services and weddings.

Inspection of the fabric is part of the St John's Landmark Appeal which has a £500,000 target to repair the church. Mrs Ashmore said the £3.000 will come from the maintenance fund, not the appeal.