THE women of a village church have been challenged to restore an Easter tradition to help fund a revamp of the building.

Male parishioners at St John's Church in Hurst Green have pledged to give money towards repainting the inside of the church by sponsoring the ladies to wear decorative hats on Easter Sunday on March 31.

The Easter bonnets scheme was suggested by parochial church council secretary Andrew Penny as a way of welcoming the return of the vicar, John Birbeck, who has been on a three-month sabbatical.

Andrew said: "Easter Sunday is John's first day back and I was trying to think of something special to mark his first service with us. Once it was the done thing for ladies to wear Easter bonnets but the tradition seems to have died away.

"I thought it would be a good idea to challenge the ladies to brighten the most important service in our calendar with a nice array of bonnets."

He added: "The PCC agreed with the scheme and the men rallied round and put up money for each bonnet worn. The money will go towards repainting the church, so not only will we brighten up John's return to us, we will brighten up the church as well.

"One lady suggested she would put up some money for each suit worn by the men, but I think that was just a joke."