PUPILS and parishioners at a Pendle church and neighbouring school were due to be reunited today -- 40 years after a fire ripped them apart.

The Bishop of Blackburn, the Rt Rev Alan Chesters, was invited to formally open the new St Thomas' Primary School, in Wheatley Lane Road, Barrowford, next door to St Thomas' Church.

Pendle MP Gordon Prentice was due to join the Mayor of Pendle, Coun Pauline McCormick and representatives of Lancashire County Council, architects and builders involved in the £700,000 development.

The original Victorian church was destroyed by fire in 1965 and a new church was built further along the same road.

Work started on laying the foundations of the new primary school next to the church during the summer holidays last year.

The vicar, the Rev John Hallows, said: "When they decided to rebuild the church they decided they wanted a new site and bought a plot on the edge of the village. Now the school is on the site adjacent to it.

"The new 120-pupil school built for the needs of today's curriculum will act as a window for the church. It will act as an opportunity for the church's mission. There is a path that leads directly from the school to the church and it's a very symbolic path."

Mr Hallows said the new school would encourage established links between church and school, developed through church members' involvement in school life and regular acts of worship.

"We are talking about the possibility of maybe an after-school service once a week so that people will have a convenient time to go to the church as well as providing something for our youngsters." A new school was needed because the original one was deemed to be inadequate for the number of pupils.

The layout was unsuitable and the building could not be re-developed to current standards of accommodation required by the local education authority.

The original school has since been put up for sale.

The new building has four classrooms with resource areas between, a hall, central library, kitchen, toilets, including disabled access, a staff room and headteacher's office, reception, cloakrooms, plus a sports field to the rear, environment area and play area.