CHURCHES and chapels, with their associated youth and social groups, are an important part of community life in Cumbia.

They have had to change to keep pace with the modern world and many old buildings have been adapted, converted to other uses, or have been lost to road, housing and shopping developments though the decades.

Our pictures today take a look at some of the wide variety of activities which church congregations have tackled.

And it looks like the county’s places of worship will have to face more change, according to the first National Cathedrals Conference, held in Manchester.

The Bishop of Worcester, John Inge, said: “Far too many churches remain locked and stand like mausoleums except when they open for worship and have become increasingly marginal to the life of the communities they exist to serve. Not so cathedrals.”

Carlisle Cathedral was founded as an Augustinian priory and became a cathedral in 1133 with Athelwold as the first bishop.

During the English Civil War, a part of the nave was demolished by the Scottish Presbyterian Army to reinforce Carlisle Castle.

In the south of the county, the foundations of Cartmel Priory were laid in 1189 and it survived the Dissolution of the Monasteries to become a parish church.

Other places were stripped for building materials and left as ruins – such as Furness Abbey – or converted to private estates, like Conishead Priory.

Church life has produced many Cumbrian characters whose work has had an impact across the generations.

Carlisle's Canon Patrick Begley died in 1987 after devoting 40 years of his life to the parish of St Margaret Mary's Church, Upperby.

In 1968 he became the first Roman Catholic priest to preach in Carlisle Cathedral since King Henry VIII's Reformation in the 16th century.

Parish churches face an on-going battle against age and the elements – which can only be won by fundraising, voluntary effort, or the National Lottery.

In 1989 Walney Island yacht builder Alan Newton came up with a 56lb glass fibre cross for St James’ Roman Catholic Church, in Duke Street, Barrow, after the original 500lb version fell victim to storms.

In February 2000, Windermere saw the closure of St John’s Church and its conversion to 15 apartments for the Workington and Carlisle Diocesan Housing Association — while at Barrow, Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope, visited the building site of St James’ Church, in Blake Street, where almost £1m in lottery cash was paying for a major restoration project.