A SUMMERTOWN church is to replace its hall windows to the tune of £34,000.

St Michael & All Angel’s Church, in Lonsdale Road, will carry out the work over Christmas, with the help of a £20,000 grant from Waste Recycling Environmental Ltd (WREN).

All 68 of its hall windows will be replaced with newer, double-glazed, ones that will be more eco-efficient.

Rev Gavin Knight said: “We hope they will enhance the appearance of the building but also improving its eco-efficiency. They will be installed over the Christmas holidays in time for the resumption of community activities in the new year.

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“We are delighted that WREN are supporting the Summertown church halls and their valuable work.”

The church hall dates back to the 1920s – but the stones it is built from were originally part of a much earlier church building. The congregation had its first church built in Rogers Street – then Church Street – in 1832, to cope with the growing parish to the north of St Giles. But they outgrew the building and demolished it in 1924, erecting the current church on Lonsdale Road in 1909. It was designed to hold 1,000 people.

Using the stones of the old church, which had been known as St John the Baptist, the parishioners built a new hall in Banbury Road.

The building – made of a lower and upper hall – is still in use, mostly for community groups and projects, the church said.

Activities on offer include karate classes for boys and girls, as well as salsa and country dancing, fitness, pilates and parties.

But, Mr Knight said: “After such a long and distinguished period, the halls are in need of maintenance and renovation.

“A lot of work is done in-house by a group of very keen volunteer church workers.

“However, for larger structural projects, the church has to get expert help.”

The grant funding from WREN has come through the Landfill Communities Fund.

It is a voluntary scheme that encourages landfill operators to give some of the tax they raise from disposal of waste in landfill to environmental bodies. The bodies can then fund community, heritage and environmental projects.

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