A beleaguered Mid Wales couple will discover on Monday how much they have to pay for repairs to an ancient Warwickshire church 100 miles from their home.

Andrew Wallbank and his wife Gail, from Plasnewydd, Carno, are facing a six-figure bill because of their status as “lay rectors” on formerly church-owned land in Aston Cantlow, Warwickshire.

Since they inherited a farm in Warwickshire from Mrs Wallbank’s father, they have been fighting a little-known ancient law that decrees they have to pay for repairs to a nearby church, on the basis that the farm is rectorial property.

Mr Wallbank said today: “This has created a truly outrageous situation. They’re asking for something like £283,000, which is a far greater sum than is normal to pay in these circumstances. We can’t pay it without selling the farm but who will want to buy it with this sort of problem?

“We will only be able to sell it if the church releases us from the obligation to pay for repairs in the future. I understand it is possible to buy yourself out of this obligation but that is likely to be a huge amount.

“We will just have to wait and see what happens next week.”

In May 2002, the Wallbanks thought they had won their battle after the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court ruling that the couple had to pay £96,000 bill to repair the church.

But that ruling was overturned by the Law Lords.

In 2003 a House of Lords ruling upheld the parish’s claim and on Monday, Mr Justice Lewison sitting at London’s High Court will be asked to decide how much the couple will have to pay.

In their 2003 decision, the Law Lords described the 1932 law at the centre of the case as “one of the more arcane and unsatisfactory areas of property law” and stressed the need for reform.

But they ruled that the Human Rights Act could not protect the Wallbanks from its effects.

Mr Wallbank said that the same law affects around 5,000 parishes in Britain.

“I may be the law but we don’t feel it’s very Christian,” he said.

He added that he and his wife, who have already paid out thousands in legal bills, will be representing themselves at the High Court hearing.

By Debbie Knox