HUNDREDS of people turned out for a special Christmas market — which for one day was created inside a Belmont church.

The market was set up inside St Peter’s Church in Belmont in a bid to raise funds to go towards repairing the historic building’s tower and bells — with more than £5,000 collected in just one day.

Organisers of the event said it proved to be even more popular than they had ever imagined — thanks partly to publicity in The Bolton News.

Assistant Warden, George Skinner, one of the organisers said: “I do think that the number of people who came had a lot to do with the fact that for the first time we used our Facebook page to advertise an event and a link we put on to the story in The Bolton News resulted in more than a thousand contacts getting in touch — that included people from as far away as New Zealand.”

On the day, temporary market stalls were put up inside the church and parishioners, many of whom had been working hard for months on the project, decorated them with lights and festive themes.

Guests were able to purchase advent calenders, fair-trade figs and other festive goodies as well as limited edition cards and prints featuring a painting of the church which were donated by artist Gordon Wilkinson, with most of these selling out by mid-afternoon.

Live music was provided during the day by children from the Belmont Primary School and the Bolton Salvation Army Brass Band, and characters from Frozen were available for photo shoots as well.

Local shops and businesses also supported and promoted the event with raffle, gifts and provisions for the wide range of festive foods which were available throughout the day.

Mr Skinner added: “Entrance to the Market was free so it wasn’t possible to know how many people visited but the we thought it was well over 500 during the course of the day — perhaps double the number anticipated.

“The event raised over £5,000 pounds towards the cost of restoring this important historical building.

“It wasn’t just about raising money, it was designed to be a happy event for the village and we were thrilled that villagers and their friends from throughout Lancashire turned up in such numbers”.