A COMMUNITY has helped piece together its heritage for future generations as part of a large-scale church arts project.

Sabden villagers have seen their names go down in history after paying to etch their details onto 240 tiles which will form a mosaic to commemorate the re-opening of St Nicholas’s Church.

The project, which was launched by members of the church and community to commemorate the refurbishment of the church as an improved venue for community groups, was realised by local artist and former CBeebies presenter Lizi Botham.

She used tile paints to create an image of the church in its central location in the village overlooked by Pendle Hill.

The project, which was inundated with community donations, is now being pieced together in the church hall opposite the large stained glass window in time to be unveiled at the church’s re-opening in October. A new room with a kitchen and toilets will make the hall accessible to many more smaller community groups who were previously too small in size to hire the full hall.

Church warden Colin Hartley, 71, said: “It’s a fantastic community effort and we were so pleased with the response from residents.

“It really brought every aspect of the community together which represents perfectly what we hope to achieve with our new hall facilities.

“We’d like to thank Lizi for her inspiration and hard work in ensuring this artpiece came to fruition so that it can be enjoyed not just by current residents but for future generations.”

Lizi, who owns Pendle Pottery said: “I love living in Sabden and think the community is great so it was good to be involved. I started cutting and painting the tiles in July so it’s nice to see that it’s almost finally finished and I’ll be very happy when it is up.”