Strawberry Tea anyone?

13 August 2015

London Road Congregational Church, Newark held a special event to celebrate the completion of building work in the church hall. This took place on Saturday 1st August and the event allowed the local community to see the new facilities and enjoy a Strawberry Tea.

The facility was opened by the General Secretary of the Congregational Federation, Yvonne Campbell, who travelled down from Liverpool for the celebration.

The work, which cost £45,000, included improvements to the toilet facilities to meet the needs of people with poor mobility, young children, and people with physical disabilities who have struggled to use the hall in its current condition.

The church members wished the building to be accessible to the local community who will now be able to hire the hall for social and community events. Prior to this work there were no specific facilities for people using a wheelchair and the toilet facilities were not able to be accessed easily by anyone with poor mobility.

The work started in Autumn of 2014 and has recently been completed. There were two rooms off the hall which required extensive work to repair the ceilings and floor structure. New drains had to be installed and plumbing and electrical work to create the new toilet facilities and baby changing area which are now available for the use of local groups using the Hall.

The cost of this work was met with a £22,000 grant from WREN’s FCC Community Action Fund and church fundraising.

Rev Ken Hague commented “The work was carried out by local craftsmen employed by CJG Newark Ltd who have been supportive throughout the process. We are delighted the work is now completed and are looking forward to opening our doors to the community and showing them our fabulous facility”.

Cheryl Raynor, WREN’s grant manager for Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, says: “We are delighted to have supported London Road Congregational Church and hope the local community come along to the celebration event to see the transformation.