More than 1,000 people attended a celebration of 50 years of service from a stalwart parish priest.

Father Jeff Cridland, who covers Dover and Aylesham, even had Papal Blessing conveyed to him.

The event, called Jubilee 50, was last Sunday at Dover Castle's Palace Green.

It was attended by senior clergy from across the area including Monsignor Matthew Dickens who presented Father Jeff with a special honour, a Papal Blessing from Pope Francis.

This was in recognition of his exceptional tenure as a priest.

The event started with an open air mass in the morning and continued with live music, a beer bus and a community picnic.

Other groups supporting the event include the Anglican church of St Mary’s in Castro and representatives from organisations including the Dover Outreach Centre and street pastors.

Other guests included Dover and Deal MP Charlie Elphicke MP, whose gave a reading at the service, Dover mayor Gordon Cowan and Kent county councillor Pauline Beresford.

Two RC primary schools, St Richards's in Dover and St Joseph's in Aylesham, held a competition for pupils to design the entry sticker.

St Richard’s pupils sang the Christian worship song We Believe, with their headteacher, James Blomfield, and St Edmund’s secondary school gave a mime performance.

St Paul's RC Church in Dover and St Finbarr's RC Church in Aylesham organised the event.

Chairman of the Jubilee 50 organising committee is Natalie Elphicke, wife of Charlie Elphicke.

She said: “Father Jeff has a gift of bringing people together from across the community, as evidenced by the broad range of different group and interests who came together to celebrate at Jubilee 50.

“So many people contributed generously and worked hard over the last year to make this a great event.

"On behalf of the Committee, I want to thank everyone for making it such a special day for Father Jeff."

The event was hosted by English Heritage and Dover-based company Smye-Rumsby provided the communications system.

Other contributing organisations included Breakwater Brewery, which provided the beer bus and Sainsbury's, which supported the community picnic.

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