The church everyone sees from the train – and how what's inside could produce our Olympians

For many people travelling into Manchester, it is one of the first things that greets them.

The spire of the stunning St Benedict's Church, which pierces the skyline of West Gorton and looms over the train line into Piccadilly Station.

What's inside is unknown to many - a sprawling indoor rock climbing facility which is leading in its field.

Ironically, it all began with a wrong turn.

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John Dunne, then a professional rock climber, had seen a gap in the market for an indoor climbing centre.

He was looking for premises in the city when he ended up driving down Pottery Lane, Gorton Road and then Bennett Street before stumbling on the church - a stunning example of 19th-century architecture on an unassuming residential street.

Twenty years on, with the sport booming and now in the Olympics, the centre attracts over 50,000 visitors a year and has seen a number of its alumni competing nationally.

Its boss says he hopes it can act as a 'youth academy' and get more disadvantaged kids into the sport – whilst potentially developing medal winners of the future.

Internationally renowned climber John, who hails from near Bradford on the edge of Ilkley Moor, started climbing in the late 1970s.

During his 25 year career, he has established many new world-class routes, and was also instrumental in bringing competition climbing to the UK in the late 1980s.

Towards the end of his career in competition, in the early 2000s, he began looking for opportunities for when he hung up his ropes.

"Lots of indoor climbing centres began to spring up in the early 90s," he says.

"But they became commercial operations – mainly for