THE first ever beer festival held at Oakworth’s Christ Church was a resounding success and will become an annual event on the church’s fundraising calender.

The festival was held over three days, culminating on Saturday.

“It really was a very good event. I was a bit nervous but we had a steady flow of people through the doors and around 300 people came," said Reverend John Rogers.

“We had 700 pints in 10 varieties of beer for people to sample. My favourite was the Goose Eye Brewery’s Wonkey Donkey. It was a very nice pale ale that went down well with visitors.

“We also had ciders and wine.”

The festival was part of a long-running fundraiser to carry out refurbishment and expansion of the church which will cost around £500,000.

The first phase is recarpeting and decorating the worship area, followed by toilet and kitchen upgrades in the community space.

The church also needs car parking spaces.

The next event will be on May 6 for Tour de Yorkshire when the church will be providing refreshments.