Volunteers at a Halesowen Church are celebrating after local residents helped them smash their fundraising target for essential repairs.

The clock on St John's church in the town centre stopped earlier this year, with the hands permanently stuck at quarter past 12. The chiming mechanism has also seized, meaning the familiar sound of the hour being signalled across Halesowen has fallen silent.

Andrew Crumpton, part of the bell ringing team at the historic venue, posted a plea on Facebook and a JustGiving page was set up to allow locals to donate towards the target of £600. However, those behind the campaign got more than they bargained for when the total hit over £800 within less than five hours. Mr Crumpton said:

"I saw the JustGiving page go up and really hoped it would generate us some money towards repair costs. I looked again after about 2 hours and I was amazed at the amount we'd raised.

“We’d like to thank the staff at Dancers, Jimmy Macks cafe and The Cornbow Centre who all helped us. We’ve already ordered the parts from Smiths of Derby and they should arrive in mid February.”

Built in 1083, St John's is open from 10:30am until 1pm daily, with services being held throughout the week and a Fairtrade shop selling a variety of goods. The church also has an active bell ringing community which is always looking for volunteers. For more information, you can visit stjohnshalesowen.org.