Holy Trinity Church is at the heart of its community.

Slimming clubs, Scottish country dancing and Carlisle Community Choir are among the many activities which take place in the main hall, and elsewhere in this large building.

But even more people could be attracted here, insists the Reverend Eleanor Hancock.

Eleanor is also vicar of St Barnabas Church in nearby Raffles. St Barnabus recently benefited from a £250,000 revamp. Eleanor feels Holy Trinity also needs upgrading.

“It is great as a community building,” she says. “But it could be even better. We’re trying to make it more fit for purpose. To upgrade the facilities to make it more accessible for a wider variety of people.

“We’re desperate to upgrade the church hall. You can just imagine community pantomimes here. The place has got a history of bands and dances and gang shows. It would be nice to have them again. We can get all sorts of ages involved. Imagine having a ceilidh in here.”

She adds: “We’ve just got to get them up the stairs first of course. At some stage we’ll put a lift in.”

Immediate plans for the hall include carpeting the stage to compensate for uneven flooring, and cleaning and re-fireproofing the curtains.

Carlisle College students have been upgrading the dressing rooms.

Elsewhere in the building there are plans to upgrade the kitchen and toilets. Eleanor hopes a new kitchen could be used to teach people about healthy eating.

People doing community payback – the replacement for community service – have been decorating.

Eleanor's plans are being costed before funding bids are submitted.

For now, attention is focused on the church’s holiday club. This begins today for ages 4-11. It runs until Friday, 1-4pm. There is a family fun day on Saturday afternoon and a special service on Sunday at 11am.

“This will be the fourth year we’ve done the holiday club,” says Eleanor. “We’ve had about 140 children attending. There’s crafts, games, songs, snacks. Children just turn up on the day. They have to be signed in by an adult.”

For some of the summer holidays – but not this week – Trinity Area Community Trust runs lunch clubs in the west of Carlisle, some of them at Holy Trinity. The other venues in the remainder of the holidays are Wigton Road Methodist Church and St Barnabas Church.

The lunch clubs are for all the family. They take place on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at midday. See Trinity Area Community Trust’s Facebook page for more details.

Holy Trinity’s place in the community was emphasised during the floods.

Eleanor says: “We opened as an informal emergency facility. We went door to door in Caldewgate asking people what they thought they would need. One thing people wanted was a place to talk and for people to listen to them.

“We want to let folk know we’re still interested in caring for them. We’re helping flood victims with decorating, and will continue to do that as people move back in.

"The floods brought a lot of people together. Hopefully we’ll help people come together when they get back in their homes.”