TO generations of Coronation Street fans it was All Saints Church, Weatherfield, but to protective locals it has been, and will always be, Holy Trinity Church, Prestolee.

Now, the future of the imposing 146-year-old Victorian church is under threat.

Only a congregation of around 30 pass each Sunday through the ancient portals of Holy Trinity and its sister church St Saviour at nearby Ringley. And repair costs, say church officials, mean one must go.

Unfortunately, the Prestolee church has been chosen, although vocal parishioners who have formed themselves into an action group are hoping to change official minds on the decision.

But, if Holy Trinity does go, it will also end an era in which the church became a popular wedding choice for the residents of the most famous street in England.

The first Coronation Street wedding there was in 1981 when Deidre Langton (Anne Kirkbride) and Ken Barlow (William Roache) got married, for the first time.

Guests pictured outside what became quite a famous church entrance included Ken's uncle, Albert Tatlock (Jack Howarth), Alf Roberts (Bryan Mosley), and Emily Bishop (Eileen Derbyshire).

In October, 1983, the church was the scene of the shotgun wedding of dustman Eddie Yeats (Geoffrey Hughes) and Marion Willis (Veronica Doran), when HIlda Ogden (Jean Alexander) took off her pinny, unwound her curlers and joined husband Stan (Bernard Youens) and Elsie Tanner (Pat Phoenix) to pose for pictures as the sun shone on Prestolee.

In September, 1987, the cameras were back when Rovers Return landlady Bet Lynch (Julie Goodyear) married Alec Gilroy (Roy Barraclough) and Cherie Blair's dad, actor Tony Booth, was best man Charles.

Coronation Street location manager John Friend-Newman explained that once a location had been found and tried out, it was often used again and again.

"Probably, everything went well the first time the locals were friendly and helpful and the building looked just right. Under those circumstances, we would quite often go back, which we did for the other weddings!"

But for now, the stone building that was opened the year Abraham Lincoln was elected US president and has stood firm through two world wars, and seen the villages around it grow into burgeoning suburbia, is waiting to see whether the final act will now reduce it to rubble.