A RETIRED engineer fears that work on Monmouth's new river bridge is damaging his Norman church.

Church warden Tudor Lewis claimed that existing cracks in the walls of St Thomas's church had been extended by the recent pile-driving work for the south abutment of the new Monnow bridge.

He said: "There were cracks already there but when the pile-driving was going on the cleaners were picking up dust and rubble off the carpet.

"The cracks which occurred during the flood alleviation work in the 1980s have not opened up significantly, but we've had pointing dropping off on to the floor.

"The work on the south abutment is now complete and work is due to start shortly on the north abutment which will be 200 yards away.

"Our concern is that work such as pile-driving causes vibrations in the church which is built on old Roman sinter, which is the residue of the smelting of iron and is hard and durable but has no resilience. Soil foundations would absorb the vibrations.

"We fear for the church when the work goes ahead and we have put tell-tales (monitoring equipment) in place to gauge the cracks and see if they open any more."

The project has been funded by Monmouthshire county council to replace and preserve the listed Monnow Bridge.

Their project manager, Bill Parsons, said he was happy the cracks were there already, but they had placed monitoring equipment of their own in the church to measure any changes.

He added: "Obviously the church has been there for some time and has suffered from settlement and there is a pre-existing pattern of cracks there which are generally in the nave of the church nearest the altar.

"These are typical of settlement cracks in that they follow the jointing pattern of the masonry and there is evidence that over the years the joints have been repointed on a regular basis."

Mark Young, project manager for the contractors Costain said the work on the pile-driving for the north abutment was due to start in August.

He said officials from the church had contacted them after work on the first abutment was completed, to say there were cracks in the walls, but not caused by the piling work.

* Pictured, The Rev Richard Pain, vicar of Overmonnow and Monmouth, points out cracks in St Thomas Church