PATRICIA Robertson is older than the church she worships in – but only just.

Patricia Robertson, 78, outside the Church of the Resurrection

She was only three when the Church of the Resurrection in Drayton was consecrated. She remembers her father singing the responses in the consecration service because the then rector couldn’t.

The Penrhyn Avenue church was the first to be consecrated by the new Bishop of Portsmouth, three years after the Anglican Diocese of Portsmouth was first carved out of the Diocese of Winchester in 1927. This month (September 16-18) it will celebrate its 75th anniversary with a weekend flower festival. And Patricia is one of a handful of people who were in the congregation 75 years ago and still worship there now.

“I wasn’t actually at the consecration service, but I remember my father coming home afterwards,” she said. “He was a chorister, and he’d had to sing the responses to the bishop in the service.

“I particularly remember the smell of the new linen-fold when I was a girl. And I remember someone called Mr Lashley from Horndean coming to talk to us as children about the south pole. My father told me to get his autograph and I only realised later that he was an Antarctic explorer with Captain Scott.

“I was a chorister at St Andrew’s in Farlington, and we got married there at the time of Harvest Festival. Both churches have always been part of the same parish, and I’ve been to both in my time.”

The church’s anniversary celebrations will include a flower festival from September 16-18 on the theme of ‘Constancy Through Change’. Community organisations and schools have been asked to contribute floral displays, which will be on show from 10am on the Friday (September 16) and Saturday (September 17), and from midday on Sunday (September 18).

There will also be a display of historic pictures of the church, a booklet recounting the history of the church building and refreshments will be served. Entrance will cost £1.50.

On the Sunday morning, the Anglican bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Rev Kenneth Stevenson, will lead a joint parish Eucharist – bringing together the congregations of St Andrew’s Church and the Church of the Resurrection - and an evening meal that night will bring together past clergy from the parish and special guests.

The church was originally built in 1930 to reflect the increasing density of housing in Drayton and East Cosham. St Andrew’s Church in Havant Road, Farlington, was too far away for such households. The plot of land was bought for £1,125 and the church built to seat 500.

The church had no halls until after the Second World War, and the nearby Drayton Institute was often used for Sunday Schools. The current building has good acoustics and is often used for music concerts.