THE Vicar of Turton, Rev John Daulman is retiring after the 19 years as parish priest.

Rev Daulman, aged 68, arrived at in 1981.

Nearly 600 people packed into St Anne's in Chapeltown, dubbed the cathedral in the hills, for the Rev Daulman's last service.

They were also there to help celebrate the 68-year-old man of the cloth's ruby wedding anniversary after 40 years of happy marriage to Elsie.

He had spent 19 years as the parish priest of Turton.

Born in the small farming community of Higham-on-the-Hill in Leicestershire, he became interested in the church because his father and grandfather had been church wardens.

As a boy, he pumped the organ for the local parish church and was a choir boy.

After spending three years as a production controller in a dye works, he chose to join an evangelical branch of the Church of England - The Church Army.

He rolled his sleeves up to get involved helping spread the Christian message wherever it was needed including preaching to working class Londoners from the East End working in the hop fields of Kent.

He was ordained deacon at Newcastle Cathedral and became a priest in 1963.

First as an assistant curator at Monkseaton in Whitley Bay, he became a hospital chaplain in Manchester before he was made the parish priest of Tyldesley eventually going to Turton.

He said: "I have been very moved by the people who came to my last service.

"There were people who had come from many different places connected to my time in the Church."

One of his many contributions over the years has been to help build up the sister church of St James in Edgworth.

It has not yet been decided who will take over the role of Turton parish priest.