Visitors, especially adult castors, who find themselves shooting at an increasing speed down a spiral ramp between floors in one of Swindon’s most splendid historic buildings should remember where they are.

As I found when I visited The Pattern Church, the huge Anglican place of worship that has made the old Great Western Railway Pattern Store in Even Swindon its home.

The church comes equipped with its own spiral slide, and the descent is rather quicker than you might initially imagine, and it’s easy, very easy indeed, to get closer to blaspheming in an actual church than is entirely seemly.

Before my near faux pas, I was greeted by Kaf Smith one of the team of ministers at the relatively recently opened church, following its previous iteration as a restaurant.

She said: “We’ll be opening up to let people see what we are doing with the building. We have boards up on the wall about the history of the building from its industrial use anyway, and we’ll let people look around the three main floors.”

At its late Victorian and early 20th century industrial heyday the pattern store was where the railway company kept what were, in essence, moulds for the making of all the components and parts of the engines, rolling stock and the railway infrastructure needed.

And there are displays of some of the patterns on the wall.

Kaf added: “We are very much a church, but we are very happy to show people around.”

And the restoration of the main worship space which is on the lower ground floor gives a really good view of how beautiful the 1897 building is.

The false ceiling that was in place when the space was a restaurant has been removed allowing a view of the full height of the room with very pleasing arches framing the floor-to-ceiling windows.

And then to the most unexpected aspect of the church – its slide.

Kaf said: ”Our minister Joel Sales always said it was key when we know the entrance was on the first floor and the main worship space below - uses the stairs, the loft or the slide.

“We couldn’t get permission for a while to knock the hole needed for the slide in the listed building. But when contractors opened up the room, there was already a hole, so that was the problem solved.”

Once, I’d managed to clamber in feet first, I was off, and rapidly. I discovered putting my legs out and apart slowed me down, and pulling them in made me go faster.

That’s a useful tip if you don’t want to find yourself starting to take the Lord’s name in vain.

(I caught myself just in time, and I think I got away with it, but it was a close-run thing. I hope I can forewarn you.)

The Pattern Church will be open for 30-minute tours every half hour from 1pm to 4pm on  Saturday, September 7. Booking is not required.

A full programme of events and venues open on Heritage Open Days is available at heritageopendays.org.uk and then searching for Swindon.