A CHURCH has been granted listed building status as efforts continue to turn the town centre into a conservation area.

The authorities at Chester-le-Street Methodist Church on Newcastle Road had planned to demolish the building, which is in urgent need of repairs to fix a leaking roof and is unsuitable for all the groups that meet there regularly.

But now a Building Preservation Notice has been served on the church after the council successfully applied for listed building status.

The building will now be included in the town's conservation area, and any changes will have to meet strict planning guidelines.

The church supported the move and is now expected to apply for grants to get the building refurbished rather than rebuilt.

Chester-le-Street town centre is now a designated conservation area, meaning that alterations and new developments have to be in keeping with the architecture of the area.

The status should help preserve its historical features.

Chester-le-Street began as a Roman cavalry station called Conecaster and Front Street, the town's main shopping street, is believed to follow the route of a Roman road.

In 883 monks from Lindisfarne made the town their administrative centre for the See of Lindisfarne, which included the seat of the Bishop of Durham and Northumberland. They also brought the body of St Cuthbert to a Saxon church which stood on the site where the 13th Century Church of St Mary and St Cuthbert is now. It was kept there for 100 years.

Just over a century later, in 995, Aldred, one of the monks in the town, translated the Lindisfarne Gospels from Latin into Anglo-Saxon.