REPAIR work costing more than �100,000 to an historic village church in Essex is nearing completion.

To celebrate, a time capsule has been hidden in the rafters of Messing Church with instructions not to be opened until 2094 – the church’s 900th birthday.

Parts of Messing Church date back to the 13th Century and the nave roof had fallen into disrepair. Now, after more than three years of fundraising and about three months of restoration, the work is nearly finished.

The Friends of Messing Church group has raised about �21,000 towards the project. Villagers have also sponsored and signed their name on tiles which are being incorporated into the new roof.

The project has attracted grants from English Heritage, the National Churches Trust, Friends of Essex Churches, Cory Environmental Trust, the Wolfson Foundation, the Garfield Weston Trust and Allchurches Trust.

Jan Barker, chairman of the Friends of Messing Church, said: “The adults in the village have been very active in their support of the project and we are very grateful for our grants, but we also wanted an opportunity to involve the children.

“The time capsule seemed an excellent idea and has produced a lot of interest at the village school. I would love to be around when the capsule is opened and hope future residents of Messing will also value our historic church. What will they think of us today?”

Children at Messing-cum-Inworth Community Primary School have filled the time capsule with articles about their daily life, to give residents of the future a unique insight into how the village and school looked in 2011.

Headteacher Brian Combes said: “Messing-cum-Inworth Primary School is at the heart of the community so we are delighted to be involved with the church time capsule.

“The children have thoroughly enjoyed writing about themselves and their school and they hope that their work will be of interest to a future generation of pupils from their school.”

Chloe Angell, a Year 4 pupil, said: “It’s a good idea because people in the future will know what life is like now in 2011.”