A SLIDE show featuring 50 years in the life of a Hale Barns church is being held this weekend(September 26 to September 28).

The show is part of the five decades of history connected to the Holy Angels Roman Catholic Church, Wicker Lane, which culminates on Sunday with a special mass and barbecue.

Holy Angels is an impressive building, which was designed by the late architect Arthur Farebrother, who designed it along the lines of the Benedictine built Quarr Abbey, on the Isle of Wight. It opened in 1964.

The rose window in the tower has become a well known inspirational landmark and is best viewed whenever it is illuminated in the winter months sending rays of coloured light through evening mists.

Alicia Resnick, who wrote the abridged history of the church, said the property on which Holy Angels is built consisted of several farms, which were purchased by the Leigh family towards the end of the 19th century. John Leigh, a brilliant scientist, and the first chief medical officer of health for Manchester, built The Manor House on the site of the present church.

The weekend starts on Friday at 7pm, with a service of prayer and reflection with both music and dance, which will be followed by refreshments at St Ambrose Prep Hall and the show featuring past parish history.

To clear away some of the autumn cobwebs a parish walk will start from the Ax and Cleaver car park at 11 am, followed by a pub lunch.

On Sunday a golden jubilee mass will be held at 10.30am followed by the barbecue, and entertainment for the adults and children include a bouncy castle, a Great British bake off with its own Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood .entries, on parish web site.