The church’s 19th Century West gates are currently in the hands of painter and grit blaster David Wilkinson, of North Dalton where their natural wrought iron appearance will be restored thanks to the power of an industrial sized Aquagrit blaster.

Blasting out pressure at 400 cubic feet per minute Mr Wilkinson hopes the job of stripping the paint work off the gates, which measure approximately 8ft by 4ft, will take two and a half days to complete.

Mr Wilkinson uses Aquagrit, a mix of grit made up of recycled glass bottles, which gives the iron a clean finish, and estimates he will use over two tonnes of it to get the job done.

“It’s interesting because whatever we do it will look better when it’s finished,” Mr Wilkinson said.

Mr Wilkinson has specialised in spray painting and grit blasting for over 15 years, but this is the first time he has worked on a set of church gates, something which he does not plan to forget in a hurry.

“This is quite a rewarding job because I photographed them taking the gates down and I have photographed my work on the posts and railings,” he added.

Mr Wilkinson started work on the posts and railings outside the church, which cannot be moved, at 5am on Wednesday morning to avoid causing too much mess and disruption.

Once the gates have been stripped they will be moved to Garton Heritage Forge where blacksmith John Crossland and Consultant David Athey will undertake the repairs.

Mr Athey said removing the gates, which were officially dedicated in 1889 after they were put in to replace the original wooden gates, was a straight forward operation involving shear strength.

Mr Athey said: “There were no problems in removing the gates, it was really straight forward.

“We lifted them onto the back of a truck, we thought we might need a crane for the final lift but we didn’t.

“ It was down to a lot of man power and shear determination.”

The restoration is being funded by Friends of St Mary’s Beverley, a registered charity which aims to promote interest in St Mary’s church and it’s history.

The gates are expected to be moved to Garton-on-the-Wolds early next week and once the repairs are complete the gates will be reinstated and gilding undertaken by Michael Bonney of York.