A VERGER had to ring the church bell to get help after accidentally being locked in his own church at the weekend.

Roy Butt, 75, was in St Thomas' Church in Southwick on Saturday evening, preparing for the next day's services, when he found someone had inadvertently trapped him inside.

The enterprising verger decided the best way to alert someone to his plight was to ring the church bell to attract outside attention. He said: "At one stage I thought, well the heaters are on so I will be alright here for the night and then the vicar will discover me when he comes in for the morning service. Then I had a brainwave and thought I could ring the bell'. We've only got the one so I couldn't do a peal but it worked!"

The church has just been redecorated and Mr Butt, who has been verger at St Thomas' for 15 years, had been working to get the area of worship ready for Sunday.

Rather than sit tight and wait for rescue he rang the church bell 12 times then got on with his chores for 10 minutes. He got no response to the first chimes so repeated the process until neighbours Rod and Gill Laing came rushing to his rescue.

Mrs Laing said: "We had been out and we came back and heard the church bells ringing which I thought was very odd for that time on a Saturday night."

Thinking something untoward might be happening Mrs and Mrs Laing, who live opposite the church in Winsome Street, went over to have a look and, hearing their voices outside, Mr Butt shouted for them to let him out.

Mrs Laing said: "He did look rather relieved. The church does have heating and a toilet but still I don't think I would've liked to spend the night in there."

On investigation it turned out that someone working at an event at the village hall had gone to the church to try to find Mr Butt to tell him there was a problem with the heating in the hall.

The keys to the church were in the door and the unsuspecting visitor accidentally turned them while trying to gain access and then left, not realising Mr Butt was inside.

Mr Butt said: "I won't embarrass anyone by naming names. It was only when he was telling me about it afterwards that I realised what must have happened."

To add insult to injury Mr Butt returned home in the early hours of Sunday morning to discover a note from his sister telling him she had heard the church bell ringing at 9pm and again at 10pm and asking if it had been him or someone else.

He said: "When I told her my sister she said if my friend hadn't rung the Wiltshire Times, she was going to."