Gloucestershire church sculpted in grain of sand

A Gloucestershire church has been sculpted from a grain of sand by a micro-sculptor determined to prove to his girlfriend he could do it.

Willard Wigan MBE created St Bartholomew’s in Chosen Hill from a grain of sand taken from the church grounds.

Wigan told the BBC he used a shard of diamond and sculpted the church from memory. He was set the challenge by his girlfriend, who worships at St Bartholomew’s.

The work, which has to be viewed through a microscope, has been mounted in the eye of a needle and may be auctioned for charity.

The vicar of St Bartholomew’s, the Rev Jonathan Perkin, praised the sculpture.

"I thought it was very fitting because the Christian story is a wonderful love story about a God who is so big and yet became micro in the person of Jesus and came to love us," he told the BBC.

Mr Wigan was encouraged to become a micro-sculpture by his mother after struggling with dyslexia as a child.

He recalled his mother saying that he could not read or write well “but the smaller your work, the bigger your name will become”.

He told the BBC he wanted to start sculpting even smaller works.

"As small as what you've seen, it's not the best of me yet," he said.

"I'm taking it even smaller because I'm not satisfied with my work right now, it's too big."