CHRIST Church was once home to drug users and vandals who used the pretty churchyard as a dumping ground.

But, just six months later, the Harwood parishioners no longer have to dodge foil used for drugs, alcohol cans and bottles and graffiti.

For the churchyard is now officially one of the best in the country and has been shortlisted for Best-kept Churchyard in Great Britain.

An army of volunteers plucked up the courage to tackle the graveyard and got to work in February, clearing the rubbish and cutting down the overgrown brambles and weeds.

Leading the volunteers was 66-year-old Pamela Cliff, a parishioner for 24 years and the current church warden.

She said: "I regularly tended the garden at the front of the church and decided we needed to do something about the yard. I asked for help in the church magazine and it came.

"You couldn't see the graves when we started. It really was a disgrace. Our first task was to make the yard safe so we had gravestones secured and some trees treated or cut down. We also got rid of the outside water tap which we found had been attracting the drug users.

"Slowly the drug users disappeared and we started on the graves. We have spent thousands of hours working on them and have been overwhelmed with the help we have received.

"We have involved the local community and people of all ages have taken part. Last Saturday there were 39 people helping.

Everyone can see what a difference we are making.

"It has brought the community closer together. We are amazed to be one of the finalists and are so pleased."

More than 500 plastic bags full of waste have been recycled from the project. But the work is far from finished.

It takes two hours to clean one grave and, with hundreds of graves, there is still a lot more work to be done. The volunteers have cleared an area of the yard for disabled parking and are now trying to raise £3,000 to have a new car park.

Mrs Cliff said: "Now it is safe, we are hoping to involve children from Christ's Church primary school to plant bulbs in the autumn and, because of the all the extra wildlife now in it, use it to study the animals."

The judging for the title of Best-kept Churchyard in Great Britain, sponsored by Ecclesiastical Insurance, will be done secretly during the next three weeks. Around 400 churches entered the competition and the first prize is £1,000. The winning church will feature in a national 2005 calendar.