MUCH-NEEDED repair works at a historic town centre church have finally been completed to herald a new era.

St Helens Parish Church has undergone the £250,000 renovations after gaining support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The historic town centre church has had urgent repairs to its stone arch above its east window and part of its nave roof re-done, continuing roof repairs which have taken place over the past few years.

Scaffolding has been in place in the chancel for more than two years, since a crack had been found in the arch and proposed works will rectify this, enabling the church to be fully restored.

The completion marks the end of a long process and comes ahead of the upcoming retirement of vicar Reverend David Eastwood after more than eight years at Parish Church.

St Helens Parish Church has a rich history, with the current building which opened in 1926 a landmark of the town centre.

The first known reference to ‘St Elyns Chapel’ dates back to 1552, with a new chapel built in 1618 and again between 1750 and 1780.

In 1816 it was deemed too small and major building works took place to extend the building, which was renamed St Mary’s.

In December 1916 the church was destroyed by a fire and met in the town hall for a decade.

Building works on the current building took place between 1920 and 1926 and the new church opened under the name St Helens on November 10, 1926.

The church’s foyer was created in 1994 and in 2001 on the 75th anniversary of the new building a side chapel was partitioned with glass doors.

A spokesperson for St Helens Parish Church said: “It has been a long process and there are so many steps we have had to go through before we started the building work.

“Everyone is relieved that is it done.”

Curate Reverend Beth Anderson, who will be one of the clergy, taking over the reins at Parish Church, added: “It is lovely to have the light coming through the windows and not to have any of the scaffolding anymore.

“God’s house is mended!”