Residents are furious at the state of the town's iconic Christ Church which has been boarded up under dangerous structures legislation this week.

One of the clock faces came adrift during recent high winds and was left dangling across the edge of the steeple alcove which housed it.

Allerdale council took emergency action under the Dangerous Structures Act on Tuesday, within an hour of the problem being reported, and found that parts of the buildings surrounds were also crumbling.

A spokesman said the clock has been made safe and the church has been boarded up as a precaution.

This latest events comes less than a month after it was reported that there had been a break-in at the church and pipes broken causing water damage within the building.

Angry residents have taken to social media to express their dismay. They say their fears have been justified and the church will just be left to deteriorate until planners are left with no option but to allow it to be demolished for housing or the like.

Author and former Maryport resident Edna Croft, who now lives in Carlisle suggested: "The idea in Carlisle is to let building become so decrepit they are dangerous then people asking for it to be demolished."

Cliff Ismay, a descendant of Thomas Henry Ismay owner of the White Star Line that built the Titanic, said the church and the clock were of historical importance. The clock had been a gift to his birthplace by Ismay who set up a trust for the town even after he left to live in Liverpool.

Several people are urging for a conservation order to be placed on the church or to form a group to try and find the money to save it.

Christ Church was closed in 2013 after dwindling congregations and escalating maintenance costs made it impossible to carry on.

A campaign was mounted which included a petition. It received town council backing and the council wrote to the diocese to discuss the possibility the building being leased out at a peppercorn rental for use as an art gallery or local museum.

This did not eventuate and in 2014 the church was sold for a reported £65,000 to an undisclosed buyer.

Since then, locals say it was sold again for over £80,000 but nothing has been done to the building since its doors closed.

Built in 1872 and known as the Sailors' Church, this small, tall-steepled building has been a Maryport icon made famous in several paintings by renowned British artists including LS Lowry, Percy Kelly and Sheila Fell.