ONE of the most familiar landmarks outside the bar walls in York is St Paul's Church. Countless motorists see the imposing building every day as they travel along Holgate Road. It is built on an area known as Bishop Fields; but as historian Geoff Hodgson notes in his biography of the church, Born To Glory, "to stand today at the side of the girder bridge, listening to the roar of traffic both road and rail, would seem to push any fields, bishop's or otherwise, a thousand miles away".

The church was born in quieter days: this Sunday marks the 150th anniversary of the first service to be held at St Paul's.

Its location, Bishop Fields, is so called because it is believed to be part of the endowment of King Edwin - the land given to the church at the foundation of York Minster in 627.

Even by the start of the 19th century, Holgate Road was little more than a country lane between green fields, as Mr Hodgson relates in Born To Glory. It was the coming of the railway that changed the area forever, and made the building of a church imperative.

By 1839, nearby land had already been sold to the York and North Midland Railway Company for the line that ran into the city's first station in Toft Green. During the 1840s, lots of closely-packed houses were built in the Holgate Road area for the influx of railway workers.

This new population needed somewhere to worship and in 1848 the schoolroom was licensed "as an additional church for the accommodation of the inhabitants". The first clergyman to be in charge of the schoolroom went by the splendid name of the Reverend Aldolphus Robert Vaughan Hamilton; alas he died suddenly aged 37.

His successor William Cartledge became very popular, with the room crowded both morning and evening.

Clearly, a permanent house of worship was needed. And so it was that the first church in York since the reformation, St Paul's - the "railwaymen's church" - was built.

"It was founded not by the super rich, but by a body of self-perpetuating trustees of the evangelical persuasion who were the inheritors of the evangelical revival of the 18th century," said Mr Hodgson. "It still maintains a strong evangelical witness today within that fast growing 'wing' of the Anglican Church."

Designed by the brothers JB and W Atkinson, the Grade II listed church is unique in York, Mr Hodgson believes, for having cast iron pillars, redolent of the Victorian age in which it was built.

Although there was great goodwill towards the new church, it was short of money. Unlike older churches, St Paul's had no endowment and the major part of "providing for the incumbent", as Mr Hodgson puts it, had to come from pew rents.

"Even when I went in the 1950s, there were still pew rents and people paid for their own pews," he recalled.

"Occasionally, if you sat in the wrong place you were told to find a seat elsewhere. That was before the Church Commissioner equalised the stipends of the clergy."

As part of the 150th anniversary celebrations, members of the church have compiled a book of memories from the congregation. Author and social historian Van Wilson compiled Voices of St Paul's: A Celebration Of The First 150 Years from interviews conducted by herself, Anne Boon, Richard Foster, Georgina Hardcastle and Lynne Townend.

The recollections included, from 34 interviewees, are fascinating, moving and uplifting.

One of the oldest members is Gladys Atter. Born in 1917, she first attended St Paul's when she was five. She remembers George Richardson, the rector at St Paul's throughout the First World War and beyond.

He had "two dishy daughters", she said. "They were an embarrassment to him. They were always going out with the lads and showing him up. You wouldn't have ever thought they'd been clergyman's daughters."

She got into mischief herself when younger. "Before the young men were called up, we used to occupy three rows at either side of the church at the back, doing our courting. We used to do some awful things at church. I did. I was expelled."

She was told not to come back for a month until she'd reformed. "I never ever missed that church so much in all my life as I missed it that month."

Charles Symington recalled an accident when he fell off a ladder: x-rays showed that he had fractured his spine and neck. "They sent a message to the evening service at St Paul's. The service was stopped and they prayed for me. I was about eight or nine hours in the hospital getting checked over and x-rayed.

"But when they looked at the x-rays on Monday, they couldn't find the fracture on my neck, only on my spine, and it felt like God had healed my neck.

"The fracture definitely was there on the x-ray plate when they took it on Sunday, but on Monday they couldn't find it. It was a sense of being uplifted. I could have been paralysed from the neck down and that would have been it really."

Trevor Reed and his wife Linda had been trying for some years to have a child without success. They also became frustrated by the lack of progress over their application to adopt a child. Members of St Paul's prayed for them.

"Friday the 13th of November was a glorious day," Trevor said. "We had been selected to adopt a 15-month-old boy. He came with the name Christopher. It was a tears of joy day.

"Then in December 1988, Linda told me she was pregnant and in June 1989 Alexander was born. Some would say the miracle has finally happened, but I believe it has been happening for a long time.

"God's timing is perfect, and I believe he wanted us to adopt Christopher... God brought us together as a family."

A full weekend of activities has been organised at St Paul's Church to mark its birthday. Local bands Abjectsearfunk and Automatic perform at youth event Re:Load on Friday night, which is open to all secondary school-age youngsters.

On Saturday, the church hosts an open day from 11am to 4.30pm, and a celebration service takes place at 10.15am on Sunday. For more details contact the church office on (01904) 658820.

The final word goes to Gladys Atter, who first went to St Paul's in 1922. "There was a Wednesday evening service and a Saturday evening prayer meeting in the room at Dalton Terrace.

"There was quite a crowd of boys and girls. We had great happiness. The paths of life have taken us in different directions... We all say we feel they were the happiest days of our life."

- Voices Of St Paul's, published by the Sessions Book Trust, is not for sale. A limited number will be available at St Paul's during the anniversary weekend, and copies will be given to the city archives, reference and lending libraries