Work has started to restore a crumbling Oxford landmark to its former glory.

Scaffolding has gone up around the Martyrs' Memorial, in St Giles, and stone masons have begun inspecting the Victorian structure.

Debbie Dance, secretary of the Oxford Preservation Trust, said: "They will be starting at the top of the monument and working their way down, examining exactly what needs to be done to repair the memorial and conserve what is there.

"We are hoping, if our figures work out, that we may also be able to light up the monument at night when the restoration is complete." Mrs Dance said the work was expected to take about 12 weeks to complete.

Oxford City Council has contributed £52,000 to the restoration, which is expected to cost about £120,000.

The rest of the money has been raised by the Oxford Preservation Trust, which secured a £10,000 grant from English Heritage.

The work is being carried out by a Somerset-based masonry firm, Nimbus, which has just completed a project at St Paul's Cathedral, in London.

The memorial commemorates the deaths of the Protestant martyrs Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer, who were burned at the stake in Broad Street in the reign of Mary I.

The monument was built in 1841 to a design by the architect Sir George Gilbert Scott.