A 1,000-year-old church is set to soon open its doors to display timeless wedding dresses – some even dating back to the Second World War – in the first event held there since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

More than 100 wedding photos of couples married from across the decades will also be on display at All Saints Church, in Vange, with images taken between the 1920s and 1990s – when the last marriage took place.

Janet Watt, from The Friends of All Saints Church, has collected the photos from not only across the Basildon area over the years, but has even had couples who have married in the historic site reach out from as far as America and Australia.

The 61-year-old, who married husband Ritchie at the church in 1978, will also display her mother’s “parachute” wedding dress from the wartime, as well as her own and one other vintage gown.

She said: “My parents Lewis and Phyllis married in the church in 1945, but even that was delayed two years because of the war.

“They’d meant to get married in 1943, but dad was in the RAF. He got shot down and was held in a prisoner of war camp in Germany.

“You just can’t even imagine what mum must’ve been thinking, not knowing if he was dead or alive.

“A telegram would’ve gone to his mum saying your son has been lost in action, and it would’ve been a while before they found out he’d made it.

“My mum’s wedding dress will be there on the day. She sadly died in 2010 but I’ve always kept it.

“Due to the rationing during and after the Second World War material was in short supply, so surplus silk parachutes where cut up to make wedding dresses.

“The church just holds a special place in my heart, my sister Freda also married her husband Derek there in 1967 and we have five generations buried in the churchyard.”

The event, the first of its kind to be held at the church in the last two years, will take place on September 18 and 19 from 10am until 3pm.

Janet, from Pitsea, continued: “At the last display we actually had a couple who hadn’t been into the church since their wedding.

“There is so much history here, and it’s really special for us to be a part of.

“It’s really nice to be able to get the church back open and invite people in again.”