A bake-off and Macmillian coffee morning event is being held at St Mary’s Church, in Eaton Socon, on Saturday.

Anyone wishing to enter cakes for the competition, which will take place in the church hall, should take them along to the venue on the day between 9.30am and 10.30am. There are adult and children’s categories and the showstopper theme for this year is ‘nursery rhymes’.

A Christmas fayre is also being held at the church, which dates back to the 14th Century and was restored in 1932 after a fire, in November, to raise money for repairs.

“Any building nearly 800 years old requires a lot of tender loving care and St Mary’s at Eaton Socon is no exception,” said Mike Gilham who is a member of the parochial church council.

“For the first time, St Mary’s is holding a raffle to be drawn at the Christmas fayre on November 18 to raise funds to restore the fabric of the church. Local businesses, large and small, have so been supportive and have donated prizes for the raffle such as a television, a vacuum cleaner from Tesco, a girl’s bike from Broken Spoke in St Neots, pantomime tickets for the Burgess Hall, in St Ives, and vouchers from Crafty Monkeys in St Neots.”

The church needs to raise funds to repair the vestry, which is no longer water-tight, and some areas of plaster work need attention. The church clock also needs repairing as it no longer strikes on the quarter hour.

Anyone who wishes to buy raffle tickets should go along to the church office or call Mike Gilham on 07899 856636 or buy them at the fayre, from 10am till 2pm.