AMID yet louder hallelujahs than is customary - for they are terrific folk and have by no means had their troubles to seek - the congregation of St Mark's, Eldon, celebrated the church's 125th anniversary last weekend.

"A momentous occasion," Fr Raymond Cuthbertson told them, and later had to interrupt his sermon to wipe away a tear. "I don't apologise for being emotional," he said. "It has been a rather difficult time."

Eldon's just north of Shildon, County Durham, once one of a cluster of pit villages barely separable one from the other. In 1921 the area had a population of 5,773, St Mark's Sunday school had 40 teachers - 40 teachers - and the choir 60 members.

Auckland Park and Eldon collieries each employed 1,000 men and boys; other pits had names like the Black Boy, the John Henry and the New South Durham. Times have changed, thousands moved away, congregations drastically diminished.

St Mark's is a vibrant, energetic and resilient place for all that. "They've talked about closing it two or three times," says Janice Clark, one of the churchwardens. "There've been a few upheavals, but I think we're running on an even keel again now."

"The only trouble is we're knackerooed," says another of St Mark's ladies before the service - an ecclesiastical term about which readers need not unduly concern themselves.

Overflowing services had been held in the National School until the Bishop of Durham was petitioned to provide a new church. It was, of course, a "humble" petition, though the Earl of Eldon's name dropped into it, somehow.

The church cost £2,563 and a few ha'pence and was consecrated by Bishop Lightfoot of Durham on July 23, 1879 - "a wet and windy day" reported the Echo, so eager to include every word of the new bishop's sermon that there seemed little room in the paper for anything else.

We were able, however, to report a £100 robbery in Darlington, following which police were looking for an Irish cattle drover called Edward Gunning, alias Kildare Ned.

Elsewhere, the 2,300 ton, iron screw-steamer Bristol City was launched on the Tees at Stockton, Marske greengrocer Henry Swaby was fined five shillings for being "helplessly" drunk in charge of a horse and cart and John Snowdon of Darlington was fined five shillings for playing pitch and toss in Peaceful Valley. (A breach of the Peaceful Valley, as it were.)

The church, the Echo had added, was "small but of neat and graceful proportions and of sufficient size to meet the present demands of the neighbourhood."

As if to prove everyone wrong, almost 600 turned up the following Sunday for the first evensong conducted by the Rev William Noble, a former Murton school teacher who remained vicar for 32 years and died, aged 77, two weeks after retiring.

Eldon hasn't had its own vicar since 1959, though the column reported exactly four years ago the great expectations surrounding the arrival as priest-in-charge of Fr Gary Nicholson, who was also parish priest of Coundon.

It hasn't worked out. Though Fr Nicholson officially remains Eldon's priest-in-charge, he hasn't been to St Mark's since last October and has been "withdrawn".

"It has been rather a difficult time," says Evelyn Graham, among 40 or so at Sunday's celebration.

Priests are now sent from elsewhere in the area, Sunday's service led by Fr Raymond - a fervent Sunderland fan about to move into hospital chaplaincy after 15 years as Vicar of St John's, Shildon - and by Canon John Scorer, chaplain to Durham Constabulary.

The column, they reckon, once dubbed them the Dream Team. It's stuck. His friend's elevation to the canonry, Fr Raymond cheerfully tells the congregation, "must be some perverse process in the Church of England".

The church is delightful, attractively re-ordered at a cost of almost £100,000 nine years ago after Granville Gibson, then the Archdeacon of Auckland and the Diocese of Durham's answer to General Custer, told them that if St Mark's was to remain open, what they needed was a spark.

They have survived the closure threats, survived the dead hand of Category D planning, are recovering from last year's turmoil.

Fr Raymond tells them that they must embrace the bad memories as well as the good. "We have to remember the times of darkness when we were almost incapable of bringing light into it ourselves. These occasions must not be fairy tale celebrations when we are dancing around like Brownies, saying everything is lovely and nice."

He is also invited to cut the cake. "It'll take another 125 years for Sunderland to win the Premiership," he says.

Cynthia Hamilton - christened, confirmed and married at St Mark's, has also made plans for her funeral there and promises there'll be trouble if they get it wrong.

"It's always been such a friendly church," she says. "You can come here with all the troubles of the world on your shoulders and always feel so much better when you leave."

Evelyn Graham says that when closure threatened they just stuck their toes in, Janice Clark says that the church is an important part of the community.

"If you lose your church and your school, the community goes down hill. We tried to save it both for past and future generations and the re-ordering has been a new lease of life. It's made a huge difference."

Next month they plan a flower festival and fashion show, further to mark the milestone, details in the parish magazine which on its cover carries St Mark's symbol of a lion.

For the courageous folk of Eldon, it could hardly be more appropriate.

* The flower festival preview is on Friday, August 27, the church open from 10am the following day and from 2pm on August 29. The fashion show is on August 28 at 7pm, proceeds to Macmillan Cancer Relief. St Mark's lunches on the second Saturday of the month are also well recommended. Sunday service is at 11am, Janice Clark on (01388) 775829.