Labour of love: More than £32k raised to refurbish disused church in Winthorpe
A project costing more than £32,000 to transform a disused church into a meeting lounge has become a labour of love for a Winthorpe Community Group.
'Winnie's Community Lounge' is the brainchild of the Winthorpe Community Partnership, which runs out of the old Seathorne chapel on Roman Bank, by permission of the Methodist Church.
A former tenants' association run through Waterloo Housing, the Partnership was established in 2016 and became a registered charity in 2017.. It is resident-led, working alongside local service providers, such as the police, housing,public health and children and youth services.
Jodi Bradbury, Winthorpe Community Coordinator,explained: "We recently secured funding from the Tudor Trust Charity and the Methodists to refurbish the church next door, to give us a bigger, disabled-friendly community space to allow us to offer more to our community.
"Tudor Trust gave us £22,000 and the Methodist committed £10,000. We also got a grant from the Skegness Town council to pay for the flooring in here as we had ran out of money.
"We employed Rodden and Cooper to carry out the building work, electrical work and plumbing.
"A suspended ceiling was installed, a disabled toilet cubicle built and new electrics were put in to accommodate the new kitchen area.
"A group of locals volunteered to help clean and decorate the building. This took about three weeks of evening painting and weekends.
"It was a lot of painting and hard work".
With the building almost complete and just needing a sign it has been called 'Winnie's' Community Lounge after a vote by the local community.
It opens on a Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9am 3pm as a volunteer-run coffee lounge. There is a lunch club on a Wednesday, offering a roast dinner and dessert for £3.50 . On Fridays, there is a free Fitness, Food and Friends session from 10.30am-12.30pm.
Activities continue next door, with Knitting on Tuesday 1-3pm, Tai Ch, Tuesday evening. 7-8pm, Youth Club Wednesday 6-8pm. Art 10-12noon, Thursday, and Craft 1-4pm. Both venues are available to hire too.
An official opening ceremony is taking place on December 10 from 11-1pm. The Deputy Mayor of Skegness Coun Jim Carpenter will declare the lounge open at 12noon. Christmas nibbles will be served courtesy of Tescos.
There will be a free prize draw on the day.