CHRISTMAS is meant to be a relaxing time – but it certainly wasn’t for one Peebles building surveyor and a few willing helpers.

Dr William Napier, who runs Adams Napier chartered surveyors along with his business partner Robert Adams, packed his bags and headed for Cyprus to repair a dilapidated church.

And the group managed to save the chapel of Apliki - a semi-ruinous but historically important Venetian church near the village of Kato Drys, south west of Larnaca.

Dr Napier told the Peeblesshire News: “A few years ago I did a similar thing in Romania and I met a guy who lives in Cyprus. He told me about the chapel which was collapsing.

“I got together a small team of seven people and we went out and just about managed to do it.

“We had to stabilise a collapsing arch using a traditional hot-mix mortar prepared from local lime, which was burnt on-site in a small kiln built from salvaged materials.

“Some local builders also came along and we tried to upskill them, so they can do similar jobs in the future. I think it is a great way of establishing links between the two countries.”

The project took the group just a week to complete and was co-ordinated by the Partnership for Rural Improvement & Development in Europe (PRIDE) and funded by the Erasmus+ programme.

During the project, Dr Napier was assisted by Jessica Hunnisett-Snow, senior technical officer with Historic Environment Scotland (HES) and was joined by three scholars from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings (SPAB): Triona Byrne, Declan Cahill and Gethin Harvey.

Also lending a hand was HES conservation science intern, Maria Saez-Martinez and buildings conservator and green woodworker, Diane Thomas, from Lochgilphead.

The 45-year-old added: “The project was really successful and well received by the local media in Cyprus.

“I used to work for National Trust Scotland with Rob (Adams) and we looked after some of Scotland’s most significant buildings including Falkland Palace in Fife and Charles Rennie-Mackintosh’s Hill House in Helensburgh.

“It was during our time at the Trust that we started to develop education and outreach programmes intended to re-engage communities with their local heritage and historic buildings. And that’s what we wanted to do in Cyprus.”

And Dr Napier, who has been a surveyor for 20 years, says his next job is to try and get more people into local history here in Peebles.

He said: “We want people to take pride in their heritage and we want people to engage with their local history – this is something that we hope to develop further throughout the Borders in the coming months.”