A LATCHFORD church is celebrating 100 years of history with a series of special events throughout next week.

Our Lady's of the Assumption Church, in St Mary's Street, is marking a century of worship at its current building with a mass on Wednesday.

And the string of events has already got under way with a performance by the children at Our Lady's Primary School, who dressed in outfits from the past 100 years yesterday, Wednesday.

The celebrations continue tomorrow, Friday, with an evening at the King's Club, in St Mary's Street, with tickets, priced £3, payable on the door.

Father Stephen Dwyer is the 21st parish priest to serve at Our Lady's since the parish started back in 1869 to accommodate a number of Irish people, who moved to Warrington to work on the Manchester Ship canal.

The large population meant that the church was regularly filled to capacity back in the early days and Father Dwyer says there is still a loyal congregation today.

He added: "We have a very active community and one of the women still in the congregation, Mary Miller, a former headteacher at the primary school, is the sister of the first person to be baptised in the church back in 1902."

And the church enjoys a rich history with John Murphy, a parish priest in the 1940s, going on to become Bishop of Shrewsbury and Archbishop of Canterbury.

At Wednesday's mass will be a number of guests including the current Bishop of Shrewsbury, the Rt Rev Brian Noble, and papal knight, Peter Smith.

The mass starts at 7.30pm and everyone is welcome.