A new temple with social and sports areas is opening its doors on Copster Hill Road in Oldham.

The Shree Swaminarayan Mandir group, which was previously based at a former Baptist Church in Lee Street, is opening the Shree Swaminarayan Temple with a week-long celebration from Saturday (July 30).

Commenting on the opening, president of the Shree Swaminarayan Mandir group, Hitesh Bhudia, said: “The temple is funded by donations, including much of the materials which we received from local businesses and the help of local contractor.

“Its creation was delayed by Covid, but the help of the community allowed us to keep the costs to a minimum. When you consider that the Lee Street site was bought for £6,000 in 1977 this has been a massive undertaking.”

The community raised £7million to create the temple with construction beginning in 2019 and members of affiliated temples in Cardiff, Bolton and London travelling to Oldham each weekend to help with the build.

Hitesh Bhudia said: “The average weekend would probably see between 80 and 100 men and women, from Oldham and other affiliated temples, working on the temple. Though there were some tradespeople leading the way with instruction, it was a case of most of us being volunteers who were learning on the job. Some enjoyed the work so much they’re now looking to change careers and go into construction.

“A couple of volunteers have given up their jobs so they could work full-time at the site and another couple, who are retired, have relocated from London to see the project through to completion. To mark its opening, we expect we’ll see between one and two thousand people come to events during the week and maybe up to 6,000 at the weekend.

“This is more than just a place of worship, it’ll be a new way of life for people wanting to use it, whether they are here for services, learning or sports.

"We wanted to create to show the power that communities have if they work together. We are proud to be a member of the Oldham Inter-faith Forum, whose aim is to improve relations between various faiths in the community and the new temple will help us to do that.”

The temple will be a multi-use facility, with social and sports areas in addition to classrooms and a youth club. 

The gate at the entrance of the temple was hand carved using marble imported from India and inside stands a central altar, also hand carved in India, which arrived on the site this week.

For details on the temple and the planned celebrations visit: www.oldhammandir.faith