Families and dignitaries from throughout the community flocked to an open day at the new Central Oxford Mosque.

The event, the first of its kind at the mosque in Manzil Way, East Oxford, was organised by the mosque committee to raise awareness of Islam and also to raise money to help complete the partially-unfinished building.

Children enjoyed a bouncy castle and colouring competition, while stalls offered food and items to buy at Sunday's event.

And an exhibition on understanding Islam was accompanied by a talk on the role of the Masjid (mosque) in Muslim society and society at large.

Invited guests included the Lord Mayor of Oxford, Jim Campbell, Lord Nazir Ahmed of Rotherham, Prof Dawud OS Noibi, Sheikh Muhammad Afifi al Akiti and Oxford East MP Andrew Smith.

The Central Oxford Mosque was first 'dreamed of' by Mohammed Ehsan, a student at the then Oxford Polytechnic, in 1974.

At that time the city's Muslims were still meeting for prayers in the cellar of a restaurant in Walton Street.

In the following years, three mosques were built in Oxford, but none had the facilities and space for large numbers of worshippers.

When the plans for the new mosque started to become more concrete in the late 1980s, a series of setbacks hindered its progress, including objections over traffic and parking, questions over funding and a wrangle over the cost of the land.

Built on land formerly occupied by the Cowley Road Hospital, the city council originally asked £700,000 for the prime site.

But the mosque committee took their case to the then Environment Secretary John Gummer, who was instrumental in significantly lowering the cost.

Five years since work was started on the mosque, it is now almost finished.

Downstairs, is a huge prayer and meeting room, while the upper hall is crowned by a majestic dome. The bill for the structure, more than £2m, has been met entirely by donations from local people.

Mosque spokesman Altaf Hussain said: "We were a little concerned about the weather to start with, but the rain held off and we were very pleased with a large turnout of families from across the community to our open day. It was a very nice day and hopefully there will be many more events like this to come."