Enthusiasts are spending part of their summer holidays preserving the City’s oldest church next to the Tower of London that goes back to Roman times.

A ‘church camp’ is being set up at historic All Hallows-by-the-Tower from August 3 to 10, involving everything from clearing overgrown shrubs in dark corners to painstakingly cleaning marble statues with cotton buds.

The following week another volunteers’ camp is planned at Southwark Cathedral, near London Bridge, part of the Community Service Volunteers’ summer programme involving churches and cathedrals all over Britain.

Other camps in July or August include St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle and the cathedrals at Canterbury, St Alban’s, Salisbury, Winchester, Truro and Edinburgh, among others.