A Catholic church building in Stapenhill dating back more than a century has been saved from the threat of demolition - thanks to new owners Burton Community Church.

Holy Rosary Church is to remain as a religious building following its sale to members of the Community Church, a 24-year-old group who have been seeking a new base to worship for several years.

The church has now been bought for slightly under the £200,000 asking price and will also house a Christians Against Poverty debt charity and other local community groups.

Leaders at the church said the local community had breathed a sigh of relief that the 111-year-old building would not be demolished or sold off for housing.

It was revealed in March, that Holy Rosary was to close due to dwindling congregation numbers and rising maintenance costs.

Holy Rosary Church, Main Street, Stapenhill
Holy Rosary Church has been sold to the Burton Community Church

The Edwardian church, in Main Street, Stapenhill, had been placed on the market for £200,000 - less than a week after the Burton Mail revealed it would close within three months, after reducing its services to just one mass a week.

Now Burton Community Church, which has 130 members, will take over the building and hope to increase the number of clubs it runs as well as holding its service there once a week.

Dawn Charles, 43, leader of Burton Community Church and vice-chairman of Burton Churches Together, said: "Burton Community Church has been going for 24 years.

"We originally met at Abbot Beyne School and moved around.

"For the past eight years we have been meeting at Paulet on a Sunday but over the years we have felt that we wanted our own base to meet during the week.

"We did not want to leave Stapenhill and we would have hated to see Holy Rosary not as a church. It is a lovely building.

Picture: GOOGLE STREET VIEW
Holy Rosary Church, Main Street, Stapenhill
Holy Rosary Church, Main Street, Stapenhill

"We fell in love with it.

"The reaction from people, so far, just from the conversations we have had, has been incredibly positive. People are just delighted that it won't be flats."

The church, which is fully alarmed for security, already runs a debt centre on behalf of CAP (Christians Against Poverty) debt-counselling charity which it hopes to move to Holy Rosary. Burton Community Church has helped 80 clients out of debt in the last three years."

Mrs Charles said: "We will run the debt centre from there and hope to set up other clubs as well as youth work."

The church is hoping to complete the sale at the end of the month and move in by September.

Mrs Charles said: "We will have to do a bit of work to Holy Rosary to make it accessible for our disabled members before we move in."

It was previously revealed that Holy Rosary was struggling against the success of nearby Catholic churches in Winshill and Swadlincote – all three of which are officiated by the same priest, Father John Paul Leonard.

Before its closure, the church attracted just 40 people to its only weekly mass on Saturday evenings.

In comparison, Winshill's St Joseph's Church, in Mount Street, attracts more than 80 people to each of its masses at 9am and 5pm on Sundays, and more than 100 at St Peter and Paul's Church, in Newhall Road, Swadlincote at 11am on a Sunday.

Both also hold masses throughout the week.

It had originally been decided to close Holy Rosary following a recent building survey which would see its upkeep costing between £5,000 and £10,000 per annum over the next 20 years.