HOT meals have been bringing the Dalton community together for 20 years.

Volunteers have celebrated two decades of serving up community lunches at St Paul's Methodist Church on Wakefield Road.

The community lunches - served fortnightly on Wednesdays - were started in 1986 after the church had been partially rebuilt following a fire.

The minister, the Rev Lewis Burton, decided the church should be open to the whole community - and not just on Sundays.

So he and his wife Margaret set up the community lunch programme, with the help of church volunteers.

Mr Burton - now retired - returned with his wife to the church to enjoy the 20th anniversary celebrations with the current minister, the Rev Linda Bishop.

Betty Senior, 76, of Dalton, is one of 12 volunteers who have been working on the community lunch scheme since it began.

She said: "Mr Burton wanted the church to be for a whole community and the lunches were a way of promoting this. The lunches are open to everyone.

"They were popular straight away. People of all ages attend. It's £1.50 for a main course, 60p for a sweet and 15p for a drink so it's very good value."

The fire which wrecked the church broke out in the early hours of the morning on October 22, 1983.

Damage estimated at more than £50,000 was caused.

Fire crews fought for hours to deal with the blaze, which was started by an intruder.