Lea Cross residents Ann Lewis, Tim Cloak, Key holder Margaret Gwilt, Les Kippin, Joyce Clark and Pearl Kippin at St Anne's Church in Lea Cross.

Worshippers have won their battle to gain ownership of a Shropshire church – five years after they were locked out.

Campaigners battling with the Church of England for control of St Anne’s Church at Lea Cross, near Shrewsbury, gave up hope of ever returning there. However they have now been handed the keys to allow them back into the building.

They returned yesterday to ring out the bells once more after the church was bought by a Tewkesbury man and passed on to a mystery villager.

Parishioners say they now plan to restore the building before using it for community events and some religious services, although it has never been consecrated. Officials from the Diocese of Hereford changed the locks in February 2005 after a ruling allowed the diocese’s board of finance to take all appropriate measures to keep the church and grounds secure following a long-running dispute over the keys, involving claims about who was responsible for the church’s upkeep.

The Diocese of Hereford today confirmed that the church has been sold for £85,000 to Tewkesbury man Brian Wardrobe. Ownership has already passed onto a mystery villager who wants to return it to the people.

Margaret Gwilt and Gladys Price, who were among those locked out in 2005 after they refused to hand back their keys, said they were delighted to get the church back.

Mrs Gwilt said: “The keys were handed over to us yesterday at 11.30am. It’s going to be put back to its former state and it’s going to be a church.

“We haven’t been inside it for five years and we had almost given up. We are thrilled to bits and I think we will be holding services there. We can have choral concerts and harvest festivals, it will be a social area.

“It’s never been consecrated but we’ve had services there before and we can have them again.”

Mrs Price said: “I was beginning to think I would never see this day again and I am absolutely thrilled. It is quite an emotional time for us all.

“I remember coming here as a child with my 90-year-old grandfather and now I am in my 80s.

“It is a wonderful church and I am so pleased to be here to see it re-open. I was worried I was never going to see it again. I am looking forward now to seeing some services and weddings taking place in the area again.”

The building was sold yesterday by the Mary Hawkes United Charity.