The congregation at Neville Parade Methodist Church might be rattling around a bit in their pews, but they are very far from running out of steam.

FIFTY years after the town was just a post-war babe in arms, and very many of its inhabitants likewise, Neville Parade Methodist Church in Newton Aycliffe has celebrated its golden jubilee.

They are babies no longer. None in the choir is under 60, and not many in the rest of the congregation. The Sunday School which 40 years ago had 450 members and almost 50 teachers now hasn't any of either; the Young Wives' club has grown old gracefully and simply become the Wives.

Neither the town nor the church is in terminal decline, of course, though neither may be supposed any longer to be in the first flush of youth (or, indeed, of innocence).

Lest new town become old, old story, it should at once be said that they look positively to the future, that there are young people's organisations in midweek - including a youth club with a waiting list - and that the folk are warmly welcoming.

"We love your columns," they chorus, adding as usually they do on these occasions that they love the Lady Wife's still more.

What subsequently they called the Small Hall was opened on December 10, 1955, on almost an acre of land bought for £819. The Neville Parade shops, opposite, had begun trading three years earlier. The building cost £7,000, £819 of it raised at Darlington Auction Mart by a sale of animals given by Methodist farmers in the dales.

The Large Hall followed in 1959 and, five fruitful years later, the attractive church itself, at a cost of £27,000 and much energetic fund raising.

It wasn't, however, the first Methodist presence in an area which was to become so vigorous a glimmer in the Whitehall eye and here (not for the last time) we are grateful to Mr John Wearmouth's history of Methodism in the Aycliffe area, published in 1980.

John Wesley had himself several times passed through Aycliffe Village when riding between Durham and Darlington, of which town he was particularly fond. The villagers, he noted in his journal, seemed as full of goodwill as once they were of prejudice.

A Primitive Methodist "society" was formed in 1880 at Simpasture, near where the town council's sports centre now stands and just yards from the railway line. For many years they met in railway cottages, then in an old NER carriage on land rented for five shillings a year and finally in a wondrous wooden hut (pictured right), lit by Tilley lamps, warmed by a stove, fuelled by much fervour and occasionally deafened by the Think-I-can thunder of a passing steam locomotive.

Mr Wearmouth's history also recalls the elderly gentleman who, made drowsy by the fire, fell regularly asleep during the sermon. Nudged awake by his neighbours, in turn made restless by his snoring, he would inevitably cry: "Aye that's right, lad. Praise the Lord".

Then as now, they were part of the Shildon Circuit, which in 1880 had two travelling preachers, 40 local preachers and another ten in training. They served 15 Primitive Methodist societies, from Coundon to Heighington, Simpasture to South Church and Simpasture was so pleased thus to be embraced that they invited everyone else to Christmas Day tea.

Those taking the service would usually walk from Shildon, circuit records also noting the existence of a Worn Out Preachers Fund. With so much walking, suggests Mr Wearmouth, it was probably much in demand.

It was also because of their long dependence on local - non-ordained - preachers that the redoubtable John Littlefair, a Shildon lad of 73, had been asked to take the service on the morning of the 50th anniversary.

Great minds, John had also made extensive use of the 1980 history and was said to have been "bang on", which should in no way be confused with banging on.

Evening service was led by the Rev Graham Carter, chairman of the Darlington Methodist District - "chair" in modern parlance - and president designate of the Methodist Conference for 2006-07.

Head lad by whatever title, Mr Carter was bang on, too, but first had to ask the 50 or so present to gather more closely together. The church seats 250, a hymn book expectantly, perhaps optimistically, marking each place.

He himself stood beneath a large wooden cross above the altar, ready - gently, pointedly - to explore the problems and the realities of being "church" in a not-so-new town with a largely apathetic population.

Their God, he said, was a god of surprises. They had to expect the unexpected. "If God is a god of surprises you are likely to be looking at something very different here in years to come, at ways of being church people without necessarily herding here on Sunday morning or Sunday evening.

"I have great confidence in the future. I still don't know if the church as it is will continue for very much longer, but God's kingdom will never fail."

We talked afterwards with Ken Brown, Nancy Jude, Jessie Musgrave and Dorothy Shenton, all choristers with 50 years' membership, recalled when 455 people had attended a dinner aimed principally at getting money and interest out of them. ("It's not a misprint," Mr Wearmouth had warned.)

"In some ways we have to move on, but we'll always be here for people if they need us," said Jessie. "People really love and cherish this church, they talk about what a nice atmosphere it has," said Dorothy. "I remember when there were 40 in the choir and we'd sing anthems and all sorts," said Ken.

Keith Burchell, the minister, moved four years ago from Burton where the breweries had been very supportive of Methodism. "My first impression of Newton Aycliffe was that everyone smiled at you, and not just because you wore a dog collar. They smiled at everyone. You didn't get that in the Midlands and the south.

"Sadly the church is now too big for us. We have to look at different solutions, not necessarily the solutions of 50 years ago or even of ten years ago. There has to be a solution for now."

Though there was no stove in the middle of the floor, no passing steam engine to drown out the speakers, a ghostly voice may have been heard from somewhere in the distant past, "Aye that's right, lad. Praise the Lord".

* Regular Sunday services at Neville Parade are at 10.30am and 6.30pm. The Rev Keith Burchell is on (01325) 313508.