AN ANCIENT church has been forced to move its services to the church hall because of “prohibitive heating costs”.

In a bid to protect its parishioners from the biting winter cold, St Cuthbert’s Church has moved regular services to the nearby church hall.

Weddings and funerals will still be held in the historic church but – for the second year running – church officials have been forced to make the “difficult” and “sad” decision to move all other events.

With yearly heating costs in the region of £8,000 a year, it is no longer viable to heat the church for regular services, according to committee member Paul Gilmore.

He said the size and height of the building meant winter temperatures rarely exceeded ten degrees – even with the heating switched on.

The problems stem from an outdated heating system that would cost in the region of £50,000 to repair.

Mr Gilmore said: “We’re no further on with the heating issues and the cost is unsustainable.

“Even at that level, we’re not able to heat the church effectively, though we’ll carry on with weddings and funerals as people want them to take place in a church.

“Very effective worship is possible within the church hall and the parishioners are taking it reasonably well – they accept that we have no choice in the matter.

“Most would prefer to be in the church but accept that this is a sensible move – it’s very sad but St Cuthbert’s is still operating as a church and all of our weekly services are still taking place.”

He said a number of elderly parishioners had been put off attending the church over the winter because of plummeting temperatures.

He said: “We have to think about people’s health – it’s not good for people when we can’t get the temperatures higher than ten degrees.

Mr Gilmore said the church officials hope to have all heating issues resolved by next winter.

He said: “We’ve got some money towards it, just not enough yet.

“It’s not just a question of replacing the boiler, the boiler house is outmoded and there are other expenses such as repairs to the roof and having to get the windows checked as some of those will need repairing – all of these things add up.”

Anyone interested in helping towards the cost of repairs can email stcuthbertsdarlington@btconnect.com