MONMOUTH Male Voice Choir will be raising the roof quite literally, when they perform in aid of a village church’s roof repair fund.

The choir are giving a concert tomorrow (Saturday, February 24) at Garway Village Hall in aid of the village’s famous Templar church and Air Ambulance.

Monmouth Male Voice Choir
Monmouth Male Voice Choir (Monmouth Male Voice Choir)

The event is being organised by The Spice (Supporting Projects in Community Endeavour) Girls and Garway Live.

Doors open at 7pm for 7.30pm, and tickets priced £15, which includes food, are available by contacting [email protected] or 01981 580129/07846 861683.

Although the stone church was built by the Knighs Templars at the end of the 1100s, with their demise in 1312 it was taken over by the Knights Hospitallers, who built the chancel roof around 1400.

The hidden away church, where you can still see the base of the original circular Templar building, was thrust into the spotlight with the 2003 publication of The Da Vinci Code and the renewed interest in all-things Templar.

Jacques de Molay was the last head of the Knights Templars and visited Garway in 1296
Jacques de Molay was the last head of the Knights Templars and visited Garway in 1296 (File)

The last head of the Order, Jacques de Molay, who was burnt at the stake on the Isle de Notre Dame by the King of France in 1314, actually visited Garway in 1296.

But despite the renewed interest in St Michael’s, it was added to the Historic England ‘At Risk’ register last year, with the heritage group describing it as being in ‘poor condition and in slow decay’.

The battered tower with a pyramidal roof was extended in the 1600s, but cracks have appeared above the intermediate chamber and tiles have fallen from the roof.