A congregation in Cumbria is set to save around £4,000 in energy bills after creating a thermal tent inside their church.

Church leaders at Christ Church in Cockermouth have decided to seal off the building's balcony, roof space and chancel area using temporary flame-retardant sheeting, reducing the building's volume to a quarter of the original space.

Before the tent, the church faced a gas bill of £12,000.

Speaking to Premier, church warden Roger Pritchett said the idea came up because they wanted to make it more comfortable for people in the congregation.

They were struggling to make the temperature pass 14 and 15 degrees inside the building. So after a few brainstorming meetings, church leaders decided the thermal tent was a good way to make the building warmer and cut costs.

“We just kicked around a few ideas between us and we came up with this stretching sheeting across a gallery level, which is about four meters above ground floor level. And fortunately, having the gallery already built, it's relatively straightforward. We had initially thought about polythene sheeting but we were worried about it's a flammable product and risk of fire. So we've ended up with scaffolding sheeting, which is flame retardant,” Pritchett continued.

Designing and building the thermal tent has cost the church a total of £750.