An array of stitched fur fabric mice are currently on display at Jurby Church.

Created by Jean Tucker, the ‘Jurby Mice’ made their first appearance in the church in 2012, with the idea being formed after a real-life family of mice found their way into the building.

Jean had the idea of making up a story about this family and ‘all they get up to during the year’, using fur fabric, felt and cotton material to stitch the mice together and sheets of polystyrene from St John’s amenity site for the backs and bases of a brand new display.

Back when the Jurby Mice were first created, Jean wrote verses to go with each scene and Peter Tucker photographed each scene to make a booklet in time for the very first exhibition.

Following its initial success, the mice went ‘on tour’ to the Salmon Centre in Laxey, with Jean making extra scenes explaining that the Mice had gone there for a holiday to visit their cousins.

With an Arts Council grant, new booklets were printed, large numbers of visitors to the Laxey Wheel flocked in and thousands of pounds were raised for Jurby Church.

The current exhibition of the Jurby mice tells the story of ‘Belle’s Special Year’, and has attracted roughly 2,000 visitors since its opening on June 29.

This latest story is told in more than 30 detailed and imaginative knitted scenes with accompanying verses, with the mouse Isabella Victoria Rose ‘looking after wild creatures wherever she goes’.

Described as a ‘modern day member’ of the Pheric (Manx for Patrick) family, the exhibition shows Belle visiting a yoga class for young geese and tending a hedgehog injured by a strimmer.

Further displays show a mallard bringing his family for a check up at the baby clinic, gnomes proving to be very capable paramedics and Belle using a spider’s thread to mend a torn wing on a fairy.

Jean thanked those who had helped her to create the display. She said: ‘I want to thank Ros Richards, who made the Celeen family and their Christmas and New Year scenes, with the backgrounds painted by Sue King.

‘Ros also made the flowers in the windows and the Jurby Mice which are on sale.

‘Elona Hart made the birds, Margaret Davies made the oyster shells and Josie Wilson stitched the material on the cardboard backgrounds.

‘I also wish to thank Elsa Rogerson, Isabel Baldwin and Sandra Kerrison for all their help and support.’

A spokesperson from the Friends of Jurby Church said: ‘A number of people worked together to create the current exhibition and the themes of working together, caring, showing kindness and looking out for each other are all reflected in the story of mouse Belle’s special year.

‘Since it started on June 29, there have been around 2,000 visitors and The Friends of Jurby Church have raised roughly £6,600 so far from sales and donations.’

The exhibition at Jurby Church is open until Sunday, September 29, every day from 10am to 4pm.