Restoration work at a Newport church ravaged by fire continues, and incredible drone footage has captured the story so far.

In June 2018, Bethel Church, in the Stow Hill area of the city was gutted by fire, which spread from the neighbouring Zanzibar nightclub.

But, rather than concede defeat, attention soon turned to rebuilding and restoring the popular church, with plans to bring it back to life.

Now, into the fourth calendar year since that one fateful fire, work is progressing well.

From afar, signs of progress are obvious – with construction moving forward to a point in which the giant yellow crane which has been towering over the city has been taken down and removed.

Even up close and personal, signs of the work, which is being carried out by Henstaff Construction, can be seen.

But, the true scale of the progress can only be fully appreciated from high up above the 19th century building.

With the removal of the crane, the timber glulam beam roof has been installed, and in the near future, slate roof tiles will be placed on top of this.

Until then, the inner workings of the church building are visible from above, and to show just what has gone into this project, the contractors flew a drone up above the site earlier this month, to give a new sense of perspective.

You can check out the drone footage below.

Watch: Drone footage of Bethel Church restoration

What has been said about the project?

Once complete later this year, Bethel Community Church will be home to a café, a 400-seater auditorium - with a gallery area, altar stage, and baptismal pool.

Andrew Cleverly, senior pastor at Bethel Community Church said: “We are very excited that we are getting to the final stages of the rebuild. We are now concentrating on choosing the internal furnishings like carpet and chairs etc.

“One of the new developments that we are looking forward to is a coffee shop which will be open to the public and other areas of the new church building which will be for community use, such as IT suite and the auditorium for hire.

“This is going to be a 21st century church within the shell of an 19th century building.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Henstaff Construction said: “The external works and masonry repairs are progressing well albeit affected by the recent cold and stormy weather. The Timber glulam beam roof structure portal has been installed and braced and will be visible for the next few weeks until the slate roof tiling starts.”

“The scheduled stone repairs have been completed to the east elevation already and rebuilding and repair works have started on the North Gable wall including new lintels installation. New bat and bird boxes will be installed as works progress.

“Internally the majority of the steel has been installed and now that the crane has been removed the infill sections can be completed and allow for the internal structure to be completed fully. A new lift pit has been cored out of the solid rock under the church and new damp proofing has been installed. The block work lift shaft walls within the main tower are progressing up the building to be able to provide full access to all areas for everybody.”