Walkes: Appeal for help after ceiling collapses

Members of Wales Methodist Panto Players and Wales Musical Theatre Company were left devastated with thousands of costumes left stuck under the dust and rubble.

The room at Wales Methodist Church is the rehearsal space for the groups and is where they store all their costumes, collected over the last 40 years.

They are now appealing for builders, business owners and fundraisers to help get them back onto their feet so their shows don’t have to be cancelled.

They are unable to assess the extent of the damage over fears the rest of the ceiling may collapse.

Director Nick Challenger said the culmination of the broken heating and the wet weather was to blame.

The groups are connected with the methodist church and recently fundraised to get the heating repaired in the chapel. Their next fundraising was going to be for the heating in the room they use.

Nick said: “We are appealing for help with building material and the heating supply. We can’t do anything with the costumes yet because the building is unsafe.”

Jayne Lemm, business manager, was left heartbroken when she discovered what had happened.

She said: “It was awful. I was with my friend and opened the door. I knew there was something wrong but I didn’t know what.”

“My friend screamed and we both saw the dust everywhere. You could taste the dust it was that bad. It’s lucky no-one was in at the time or they could have been killed.”

The next fundraising event is a summer fair today (Friday) at the Wales Methodist Church chapel from 12pm onwards. There will be various stalls and activities including a tombola, cake stall and raffle.

Anyone who wants to help is asked to call Jayne on 01909 809757.