A DARWEN pensioner who has had a book published about the history of a church is donating all the proceeds from sales to its £300,000 renovation bill.

Ken Kershaw, 76, of Avondale Road, is a churchwarden at St Cuthbert's and is desperate to help save the church from more damage from vandals.

Events organised by people at the church have raised £3,000 -- only a fraction of the sum needed to repoint the roof, replace windows with toughened glass and give the building a general overhaul.

But Ken is hoping people will rally round and pay the £10 for his book to go towards boosting the repairs fund.

"The History of St Cuthbert's Church, Darwen" took Ken two and half years to research and another six months to write and get published.

It begins with the commissioning of the building in 1874, covers the opening in 1878 and many other events right through to the present day.

The book also gives a detailed description of all the groups and organisations which have used the church, as well as mentioning the arrival of new parish priest, Father Douglas Moore.

Ken said: "Before the Rev Peter McEvitt left the church in May 2002 he said someone should write a book about the church. My daughter put my name forward because I do like doing research and have written two books already -- one about my family and the other about Tockholes.

"You need a lot of patience because there's a lot of reading involved and looking through records and the census.

"All proceeds from this book and from the copies of the Tockholes book I also wrote will go to the church because they need to raise a lot of money."

He has already sold 25 hardback copies and 75 paperbacks but has 200 more copies available.

Anyone wanting to buy a copy of the book should contact Ken on 01254 708875 or Neville Cordingley on 01254 702368.