A FAMOUS church dating back nearly 700 years has been recreated... in tasty gingerbread by a rugby internationalist.

St Mary’s Parish Church sits at the heart of Haddington and David Bergvall, with a little bit of help from partner Naomi Golightly and her five-year-old son Jackson Laing, has made his own, slightly smaller but definitely tastier, version!

Naomi said: “My partner is from Sweden and he has been doing gingerbread house-making all his life.

“He thought it would be an idea to make the church.

“It was mostly him but me and my five-year-old son helped a little bit as well.”

The sweet version of the church measures a foot in length and about six inches in height.

David, who has represented Sweden in rugby union and plays for Haddington RFC, designed the walls and roof before taking it from the drawing board to the oven.

The process took a couple of hours and Naomi, who works at Edinburgh Airport, said: “We have to roll everything out, cut each piece and put it in the oven.

“We then need to wait for it to harden and stick it all together.

“There were multiple trips back and forwards to the oven, which was my role.

“David cut templates out of cardboard and used that to cut round.

“It was his mum’s recipe for the gingerbread house, so it is all homemade.”

Melted sugar was used to join the walls and roof together before it was decorated with a sprinkling of icing sugar to look like snow.

The couple’s creation attracted plenty of attention on social media, with David and Naomi making two versions of the edible structure.

One has been given to Naomi’s grandparents John and Val Golightly, who attend the church, with a second for her mum and dad Ruth Golightly and Colvin Denholm.

David, who works for Alba Trees, has promised, though, that this is not the end of the gingerbread versions of the church.

Instead, the 32-year-old from Umea, 635 kilometres to the north-east of Sweden’s capital city Stockholm, has vowed to make a “bigger and better” version for next Christmas.

Naomi, 28, said: “David was drawing a picture for my grandparents for Christmas of the church, which is nice. As well as that, he decided to try to make the church.

“He said this was just his first attempt and next year will be much better than this!”