THE church wall had long offered a good perching place for the students of Havering FE College. The trouble was, the Vicar of All Saints', Squirrels Heath (Chelmsford diocese), the Revd Chris Wragg told me, that they had used it so long, and dropped so much litter round it, that it was beginning to collapse.

Not that he objected to the students - he liked to see them, but the wall of All Saints', in Hornchurch, was becoming a mess, and needed to be demolished. So it was the college construction department that came to the rescue. Five learners, who had just completed either a Level 2 or a Level 3 Bricklaying qualification at the Rainham Campus Construction Department, were given the task of building a new dwarf wall, lower than the previous wall, along the front of the church.

They included Star Mohammad, aged 29; Dominic Proctor, 19; Michael Coates, 19; David Pengelly, 20; and 19-year-old Ryan Boxall, who is already an apprentice with Swift Brickwork, of Chelmsford. The college even sourced 850 bricks from Belgium to match those of the main church building, and, Mr Wragg says, the students "worked like Trojans" to produce a very fine piece of brickwork.

"We have had innumerable comments from people who are very impressed by the workmanship," he says. "It has really improved the grounds of the church, and we are very grateful to the college for doing it for free."

 e has now, he tells me, planted pyracantha all along the inside of the wall. Not only does it have very attractive berries, but its thorns should discourage - in the nicest way - students' roosting on the new wall.