THE medieval Abbey at Sutton Courtenay is to be given a £3m restoration but organisers need help raising £1.5m first.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has offered the charity The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay £1.8m but director Shgaron Usher said: "We have to raise £1.5 million.

"We have taken advice from professionals and they say we need a charity champion, someone who can get into the big grant giving and funding organisations to boost our own funds.

"We have been helped by our patrons, Hugo Brunner the Lord Lieutenant of Oxfordshire, local MP Ed Vaizey and by the Bishop of Reading, the Rt Rev Stephen Cotterill, but we still need that main champion."

Preparation work for the restoration project is being done now but the restoration itself cannot take place before a planning application has been approved by the Vale of White Horse District Council and the funding has been found.

Once it starts, the restoration work will take about a year and it is hoped to start in 2008.

The 800-year-old building has always been a religious centre since it was built as part of the great Benedictine monastery of Abingdon and retains its Christian tradition as the charity "The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay".

Abingdon architects and town planners West Waddy ADP have been appointed to make a conservation management plan which will lead to the restoration programme.

West Waddy ADP partner Steve Simkins said: "We are delighted to be involved in the restoration of such an important building.

"We will be involved in preparing the proposals, engaging with English Heritage and working with the local planning authority this summer in order to gain listed building consent for the work."

Work on preparing the plan has started but work on the restoration itself cannot begin before planning consent has been given by the Vale of White Horse District Council after the preparation work has been done.

The Abbey is run by a small resident community whose aim is to offer space for spiritual and practical work and reflection and is not exclusively for Christians but is open to other faiths.

Once the restoration is complete the charity will carry on with its work but will have more space inside the building and will extend into the adjoining purpose-built guest house.

The Abbey has a long and interesting history.

It attracted Royal Clerks to the living including the chaplains to the Black Prince, John of Gaunt, the doctor of Henry V and the secretary of Henry VI. Another occupant was Thomas Beckington who became Bishop of Bath and Wells.

Henry VII gave the house and its income to the Dean and Chapter of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, and it was then leased to local squires for the next 350 years.

In 1958 it was bought by David Astor, owner of the local manor house and publisher of the Observer newspaper.

He leased it for a peppercorn rent to the Ockendon Venture for a refugee children's home.

During that time it was visited by the Dalai Lama who received his fellow refugees in the Great Hall.

In 1980 it was bought by the New Era Centre and in the early 1990s was given its present name of The Abbey, Sutton Courtenay, a charity rooted in the Christian tradition.