A vicar plans to prop up the decaying stone walls of his centuries old church with human hair.

The Rev Martin Henwood came up with his hair-raising idea when he approached the Heritage Lottery Fund to repair Holy Trinity Church in Dartford’s High Street.

As well as helping save the building, it will mean part of the congregation – and beyond – will be immortalised.

It was part of an appeal to fund much-needed repairs to his church built in 1080, the original site dating from Saxon times.

“Mixing mortar with donations of human hair will provide our community to be part of this living memory for many years to come”

Regular maintenance and upkeep has been an expensive process, and the church’s condition is now a growing cause for concern.

This week it has been placed on the At Risk Register of Historic England.

When repairs are carried out, stone masons will employ the ancient skill of mixing mortar with hair, which normally comes from horses, not humans.

Hair enables the rendering to “breathe” and “move” with stone, a cementing quality that makes it robust and pliable.

Separately, the Heritage Lottery Fund has asked Mr Henwood to come up with a detailed plan of restoration, taking in specialist knowledge from stone masons, drainage specialists and input from the community.

It is estimated the bill could cost the fund £238,000. He hopes to get the go-ahead from Heritage Lottery by next April.

“Every generation from Saxon times has contributed to the life of Holy Trinity,” said Mr Henwood.

“Mixing mortar with donations of human hair will provide our community to be part of this living memory for many years to come.”

His plan is to have a stall at next July’s Dartford Festival, where passers-by can volunteer to have pieces of their cut off.

Their locks will be placed in buckets and sent to the stone masons for mixing with the mortar.

Some of the work the church needs includes:

• Leaking roof repairs
• Inadequate guttering and drain pipes causing rain to also seep in internally, while causing damp externally to brickwork.
• Historic stone work now badly weathered and decaying, the mortar holding it together significantly now giving way in places.
• Its 15th century wall mural being damaged by water leakage