A HISTORIC Methodist church has held its final ever service – and for one family the closure is very much the end of an era.

Due to regular flooding and increasing repair costs, North Cerney Methodist Church has been forced to close after seeing 125 years of community life.

The final service was held on Sunday and the church was packed as the community came to say goodbye.

Malcolm Whitaker’s family moved to the area from Lancashire in the 1930s to find farming work, and ever since most of the church’s congregation has been made up of his relatives.

The congregation met at his Harcombe Farm home, near Syde, between 1940 and 1965 and now that the church had closed the services will take place there again.

Mr Whitaker, 83, who has been attending the church since he was six years old, said: “I am sad about it closing but it is opening up a new chapter in our lives because we are having meetings here. I am delighted about that.”

As well as attending the Sunday services at Mr Whitaker’s home, members of the church will meet monthly for prayer and Bible study.

Mr Whitaker said there had been many memorable occasions at the church over the years.

During the Second World War, in September 1944, four Welsh paratroopers from the 1st Airborne Division, stationed in Bathurst Park, attended a service before going back to Mr Whitaker’s uncle’s house where they sang Welsh Hymns.

He said: “Two days later they went to fight in the Battle of Arnhem which was of the biggest disasters of the war.”

He said it was likely the paratroopers died in the battle.

Another memorable occasion was when renowned German pastor Martin Niemöller attended one of the services in 1959.

Mr Niemöller was imprisoned in 1937 and 1945 for his opposition to the Nazis’ control of churches.

“He came and had tea with us – it was rather like having St Paul in the house,” Mr Whitaker said.

Gloucestershire Methodist superintendent minister, the Rev Dr James Tebbutt, explained that closing the church was the only option available, saying: “With a largely elderly congregation, the repair costs are now disproportionate.”