A WARTIME wedding dress worn seven times by seven different brides will be among the star attractions at an exhibition being held this weekend.

Belmont Church in Durham is holding a three-day exhibition of 16 wedding dresses through the ages, as part of a drive to get prospective brides and grooms to consider tying the knot in church.

Among the fashions on show will be the dress worn by former nurse Nancy Urwin, now aged 90, at her wedding in Darlington in 1945.

She remembers her family spending a long time collecting the material for the gown due to wartime shortages and rationing.

Her mother then made the dress and after the wedding, her husband, who was in the Navy, was posted to the Far East for a year.

She said:” I would come off work and go to check if there was any material available for the dress and eventually we managed to get enough.

“My family donated coupons so we could get the material. A number of people borrowed the dress - seven brides have worn that dress.”

The exhibition will take place over the bank holiday weekend of May 23-25. The oldest gown in the exhibition, which includes a dress from every decade of the 20th Century, dates from 1896.

Most have been loaned by members of the community, while others were loaned by Beamish Museum.

Vicar of Belmont and Pittington the Revd Dr Miranda Threlfall-Holmes said: “We hope the exhibition encourages people to think about having a church wedding, which is such a happy occasion, and there are some fascinating human stories attached to the dresses.

“Everyone loves a wedding and everyone loves a wedding dress and there are some interesting family stories attached to these dresses."

The exhibition can be viewed between 10am and 4pm on Saturday and Monday and from noon to 4pm on Sunday.