A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to have your name or that of your company quite literally carved into the history of Gloucester Cathedral is still open to the businesses of Gloucestershire.

The £500,000 campaign to restore the North Ambulatory of the iconic Cathedral got underway in 2018, with plans to clean and repoint the masonry on one of the oldest parts of the building.

Designs for six gargoyles - one to depict and celebrate each of Gloucestershire's districts - were included within the scheme.

The half-tonne structures which are hand-carved on site by the Cathedral's team of master masons and help protect the iconic building by diverting water away from the structure.

So far, four of the six gargoyles - the 'Glawster' rugby player, Forest of Dean freeminer, Stroud suffragette and Cotswold sheep shearer - have been sponsored.

And now Dean of the Cathedral, the Very Reverend Stephen Lake is hoping to find sponsors for the final two gargoyles, the Cheltenham jockey and Cotswold cheese roller.

He said: "We need sponsorship for the last two gargoyles that will get us over the line for a £500,000 project that will help get the water away from the Cathedral.

"Once they're up they will stay up forever and any of the donors can be part of the process of seeing it installed on to the Cathedral where it will be displayed forever more."

The gargoyles are currently being turned into reality by master mason Pascal Mychalysin and his team of stone masons.

The designs for the Cheltenham and Tewkesbury gargoyles are currently in maquettes made from clay, effectively prototypes from which the stone carvings will be made.

Companies such as Ecclesiastical Insurance and Westbury-on-Severn based metals firm PSW England Ltd have already rallied to the cause to sponsor gargoyles.

Each has been able to suggest final finishing touches to personalise their design which will sit on the Cathedral for ever more.

"Each gargoyle is available to sponsor for £15,000," Revd Lake said. "We have four of them sponsored already and we just need the final two to be sponsored.

"It's a chance to make a mark in Gloucestershire, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to become part of history and do something that is completely unique."

To register your interest in sponsoring a gargoyle or for more information contact Dean Stephen Lake through the Gloucester Cathedral website   or via dean@gloucestercathedral.org.uk