DO you know what the oldest building in Northwich is?

Well, St Helen’s Church, on Church Road, ticks that box with parts of the building that date back to the 13th century.

Gordon Atkinson, churchwarden, is eager for the ‘community asset’ to regain visitors if restrictions are lifted on July 19.

They had planned to open the church up again to be visited as well as hold services, but following Boris Johnson’s announcement of the delay to the lockdown easing, they now have to wait until next month.

“Although we understand the need to delay lockdown easing we were disappointed that we are not able to fully open St Helen’s Church on Saturday, June 26,” said Gordon.

“We are now focused on planning full reopening from July 24 and we will share our plans a bit nearer the time.

“It’s a really important community asset. Architecturally, it’s the oldest building in Northwich by centuries and indeed the most beautiful.”

Since the pandemic began, the church was only closed in line with coronavirus regulations and church services have since been allowed this year with face masks and social distancing in place.

“Prior to lockdown, we had the church open every Saturday because in 2014 there was a consultation and one of the key feedbacks was ‘the church is never open’ and so we started opening the doors each week just so people could come in,” added Gordon.

“They can walk around, look at the architecture, sit quietly in a corner, whatever they want really and that’s what we hope to do when the lockdown easing permits.

“I don’t know what words to use because everybody in all walks of life misses that ability to socialise, chat and have friendship with each other.

"The fact that we will hopefully be allowed to do that again one day would be really tremendous."

The church is also keen to keep improving the facilities to attract more residents when it can fully reopen.

Gordon continued: “In terms of being a place that belongs to the community, it’s also really important. Going back to the consultation in 2014, a lot of comments were ‘we’d like to use your church better but the facilities are fairly poor’ and so in 2020, we had a new kitchen fitted.

“We are looking to improve the physical facilities so people from the community find it more comfortable to use and it’s all part of the churches mission really to be there for the people it serves.”