THE Rev David Chesters is far from being a trendy vicar but does boast 1,500 followers on his Facebook page.

The pipe-smoking Rector of Chester, who is based at St John the Baptist Church, by Grosvenor Park, has more Facebook friends than most young party animals.

But Mr Chesters isn’t using Facebook to organise his social life but rather to promote Chester and the historic church of St John’s as well as discussing his favourite subject of archaeology.

And Mr Chesters, who is married to Lorraine and has a six-and-a-half-year-old daughter Charlotte, goes on the social networking site almost every night.

He said: “My daughter thinks I’m barmy and my wife thinks I’m an addict which is probably true but it is a very useful way of communicating.”

“I use Facebook to promote St John’s and the city of Chester and I have a block of photos on there with places of interest around the city. Since I’ve been on Facebook the number of hits on the parish website has trebled.”

Mr Chesters, who lives in Queens Park, is known as a colourful character who started out as a customs officer which took him all over the country. When he retired early in 1997 he had risen to the position of head of external affairs for HM Customs dealing with media enquiries.

Mr Chesters then studied archaeology at Leeds University where he met his wife and it wasn’t until 2005 that he was ordained.

Speaking about St John’s, he said: “I met a chap in Love Street who asked if I would I accept help from a neo-Pagan with Celtic Christian leanings. He wanted to help the St John’s Project as a volunteer.

“He said St John’s was a ‘thin church’ where the veil between heaven and earth is at its thinnest and that I can understand.”