Church to be sold at auction after attendance fell

A church building is set to be sold at auction, after it closed last year following dwindling attendance at services.

The decision to vacate Malpas Community Church (MCC) in Cheshire was made "very reluctantly", church leaders said.

The auction follows the sale of the grade II-listed Congleton United Reformed Church, which sold for £200,000 in September.

The Malpas church has a guide price of £150,000 and is due go under the hammer on 24 March.

A spokesperson for MCC said their congregation had been dwindling for many years prior to the decision to sell the building.

A listing online said the building had internal accommodation over two floors, totalling about 326 sq m (3,511 sq ft).

The building consists of a number of individual rooms and offices as well as a larger open plan hall area on the ground floor along with a kitchen and toilets, the listing shows.

There is also a car park suitable for about 12 cars, it added.

The sale also includes a separate graveyard situated to the south west of the site.

Reverend Murray George - who is involved with both church communities - previously told the BBC the decision to leave the building in Congleton was made after a long period of deliberation and years of trying to maintain and develop the venue.

The Grade II-listed Congleton United Reformed Church in Cheshire had been a place of worship on Antrobus Street for nearly 150 years, but was too large for its congregation to maintain.

"It is a very big church, that's Grade II listed, and it's just become too big and too expensive for the current congregation," George said last year.

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