The weekend began with a service in the church on Friday evening, following which guests were invited to throw donations into the font in a bid to 'fill the font'.

Guests included project patrons the Lord Lieutenant of Leicestershire Jennifer Lady Gretton and the Rt Rev Tim Stevens Bishop of Leicester. The new Mayor of Melton, councillor Mal Sheldon also attended along with Leicestershire County Councillor Byron Rhodes and borough councillor Elaine Holmes.

The event continued on Sunday with a fun day and pageant, which featured scenes from Scalford's history acted by local people and school children, and included the re-appearance of Peppermint Billy, the last man to be publicly hanged in Leicestershire.

The pageant ended with the 'burial' of a time capsule by Anne Davies of BBC East Midlands Today. The time capsule – sponsored by Richard Barnes funeral directors - contains contributions from Scalford villagers and is due to be re-opened in 2058.

The fun continued with a balloon race, stalls, cream teas, a tug o' war, and a pub quiz and supper at The Kings Arms.

Barbara Coulson, appeal project director, said: "The overwhelming success of the launch weekend has given us an excellent basis on which to build our appeal. We are now looking to continue to work towards our target which will see this innovative project come to fruition."

The target for the weekend was to raise £2000, which was far exceeded. The project needs to raise a total of £350,000, of which 20 per cent has already been achieved.

The St Egelwin's 'back to the future' project features a partnership between the church, school and local community in Scalford and aims to update and renovate the interior of the church to create a welcoming and useful space for the whole community - in particular the local school. See www.stegelwins.org.uk for more information.

Scalford's Rev Beverley Stark said: "St Egelwin's Church and the Scalford Church of England School are at the heart of the Scalford community. The church was traditionally the place where people met together during the week and worshipped together on Sundays.We must now take the initiative to repair and redesign this wonderful space to meet the needs of today for the whole community as well as the church and the school."