A DETERMINED Wor-cester schoolgirl who stopped an historic city church from going up in flames is to be commended by city leaders at a special ceremony this week.

Abigail Coward saved St Paul's Church from ruin when she refused to dismiss a smell of smoke she detected as she rehearsed for a musical production.

The smell was coming from the back room of the historic building - where the legendary Woodbine Willie, the Rev Geoffrey Studdert-Kennedy, was once vicar.

When adults went to investigate they found a fallen halogen light was next to a timber and its intense heat was causing the wood to smoulder.

Abigail's persistence last July is to be recognised on Friday when she and her parents will be special guests at Worcester Guildhall, where she will be presented with a Commendation certificate by Chief Fire Officer David O'Dwyer.

The Mayor of Worcester, Councillor Mary Drinkwater, and the Rev Peter Boyd, of St Paul's Church, will also be at the ceremony.

"She saved part of the city's heritage," said Mr Boyd, who suggested the 12-year-old Christopher Whitehead pupil be rewarded for her quick-thinking.

"For us as a congregation it would have meant us being without a building for two years and it would have been devastating. We think she's a heroine and her persistence paid off."

The drama unfolded on Thursday, July 20, when Abigail was rehearsing for a production called Fig-Leaf Blues.

Initially adults believed the smell was coming from a bonfire, but the youngster, from Lower Wick, was sure it was from inside the church - particularly as she could still smell smoke two hours after finishing rehearsals.

The youngster said she was "surprised and a bit embarrassed" about being given the commendation.

Her mother and father, Simon and Elizabeth, sister Hannah and brother Daniel, will join her at the ceremony.

Woodbine Willie, who toured the trenches during the First World War to hand out cigarettes and copies of the New Testament and won the Military Cross for rescuing soldiers under fire, was vicar at St Paul's from 1914 to 1922.