A CHURCH that housed World War Two soldiers and put on burlesque shows celebrated its 140th anniversary today (November 14).

In honour of Cockerton Methodist Church's anniversary "Heritage and Mission – Yesterday, Today and Forever", The Northern Echo spoke to the congregation about their favourite memories of the popular Darlington church.

The church, which has a plaque engraved with the names of Darlington soldiers that died in the First World War, also had Sunday school rooms which sheltered Second World War soldiers.

Lorna Wilkinson, a former Sunday school teacher who has attended the church for 58 years, recalled: "I remember I came in one day to teach and the soldiers had taken over. They were just desperate for accommodation."

Ms Wilkinson also spoke of a humbling discovery she had while rifling through 140-year-old files at the Durham Record Office.

Her research unearthed the generous donations of the Gent family - three generations of a farming clan who donated to build the church, including five young children who offered a shilling each.

Ms Wilkinson said: "They were so desperate to get a big church to service the community. When you think that the average man's earnings were a pound a week around 1872, it was very generous."

Jan Cossins, the church's administrator, remembered the church's more "risqué" times, such as when the Girl's Brigade, set up by Reverend Jim Errington's wife Nora 50 years ago, used to put on burlesque shows at the church.

Ms Cossins said: "Some of the young wives of the Brigade had to abandon that title though, they are great grannies now!"

Saturday's celebrations were also an opportunity to see how much the church has changed since refurbishments in 1950 and 2000.

Ms Wilkinson, whose two daughters married there, said: "For 80 years brides and grooms had to shuffle sideways rather than walk down the aisle because it was so narrow."

Alongside weddings and baptisms, the church has witnessed some melancholy moments too.

Ms Cossins recalled a man named Graeme Johnson whose mother Doris passed away eight years ago.

"He held her funeral at the church and he said 'It was sadness wrapped up in smiles' because he felt so supported by the people around him."

Ms Cossins, who was a Sunday school teacher for 20 years stressed that, above all, the church was "friendly, welcoming, joyous and supportive".

"We don't go knocking on doors saying 'are you saved, brother?' We want people to come to us because we can offer them care and friendship."