AN ancient chapel forced to close 18 months ago because of dwindling numbers is to re-open as a community centre.

The chapel, built in 1719, was bought by former preacher Simon Huggill in November last year and will be officially opened tomorrow by the Mayor of Blackburn with Darwen, Councillor David Foster tomorrow..

The ceremony, led by Dr John Bidwell and Pastor Roland Dowell, will take place at 6.30pm. The building, in Chapels, Darwen, and has been mostly a congregational chapel but became a United Reformed Church in 1972.

It then came under the care of Mr Huggill who formed a registered charity, The Lighthouse Darwen, as the managing committee to run the building.

The non-denominational, Christian-based charity serves the community through education, local history, resources, action and fairtrade.

Mr Hugill said: "The end of one chapter should be the start of the next. When it closed I realised that nobody was likely to buy the building because they couldn't make it into a house because it has graves inside and it is also a listed building.

"It would have taken a long time to try and get change of use in which time vandals could have wrecked it. I am thrilled that the building now has a future."

The group's vision for the chapel will include various parts of the community and people of all ages.

A committee is expected to be formed early next year to co-ordinate the educational side of the project -- using the chapel as a resource for teaching RE, history, citizenship, CDT and ICT to Darwen schools.

This could include a maths trail around the graveyard and an IT suite.