A CHURCH which has been the centre of a tiny Teesdale village will close today after almost 100 years of service.

Kinninvie Mission Church, near Barnard Castle, began after a lay mission in 1911 but a steady decline in congregation numbers has led to worshippers deciding to close its doors for good.

After the lay mission in 1911, local residents met for worship in Langleydale School for a time, before Lord Barnard’s Raby Estates gifted them stone to create today’s church in Kinninvie – a hamlet of a dozen or so houses clustered around a crossroads.

Since then worship has been conducted at the church, initially weekly, but since the 1950s at a monthly service.

The congregation will meet one final time to celebrate a harvest festival service tonight at 7pm.

The church has been served by the clergy and lay readers of Barnard Castle Parish Church.

The Rev Alec Harding, current vicar at St Mary’s Parish Church in Barnard Castle, said: “Looking at the records of church services has been an eye opener.

“Numbers attending worship have never been particularly high, this is a very rural area after all, but they do reflect the changes seen in rural life down the decades.

“The church was created at a time when everyone in the country was working on farms.

“But now you’re more likely to get just one man working on a farm and there just aren’t as many people in the rural areas.”

The harvest festival and Plough Sunday, held in January, have always been the most popular services at the church, with 60 people cramming in to celebrate.

However, the regular monthly services attract about a dozen people, with less locals from Kinninvie attending.

The church is not the only community building to close its doors in the area. The school shut many years ago and subsequently turned into a community centre, which closed in 2009.

Members of the Kinninvie congregation made the decision to close the church earlier this year.

“Our last harvest service will be tinged with sadness, but there is much to give thanks for as we celebrate the mission of this church,” said the Rev Harding.