A CLOSE-KNIT Greenock church held its first fete in two years and raised a tremendous amount for charity.

St Margaret's in Finch Road collected £1,190 on the day with almost half of it coming from the sale of knitting.

A group of ladies in the church organised the event, which was hailed as a great success.

Elder Margaret Douglas, arranged the fete along with a group of ladies within the church.

She said: "It was a great success.

"We had missed out about two years because of lockdown.

"Our last fete had been at Christmas 2019.

"Myself and two friends did a lot of the knitting, as even though we didn't have the fetes we just continued during lockdown."

The sale of knitting raised £560 alone and everyone who came along was delighted to be reunited after all the coronavirus chaos and lockdowns.

Margaret said: "It was lovely to see so many friendly faces.

"It was a lot of hard work but it was worthwhile.

"So many churches are in a bad way, we want to keep our wee church in Finch Road.

"A lot of the congregation helped out and all the stalls did really well.

"We have a good sense of community here."

Reverend Teri Peterson, interim moderator, said she was thrilled that the first fete since lockdown was extremely well attended.

She said: "I had a great time chatting to people while the ladies who knitted for the fete made some really beautiful, hand knitted clothes for babies and children.

"We had to add more tables - there was a really buzz about the place."

Campbell McDiarmid, session clerk, said it was great to see everyone coming together after so long apart.

He said: "It was nice to see everyone coming together and not just from the church, people came along from the wider community.

"A group of four or five ladies on the committee organised the fete - but everyone does their bit.

"The home baking as fantastic and was flying off the shelves."

It is hoped another fete will be held at Christmas time.