United Free Church cafe and charity shop

If you find yourself fancying a cup of tea and a piece of toast after the Friday morning school run we have the perfect place for you!

A friendly group of volunteers run the Beeston Hill United Free Church’s café style Charity Shop religiously every Friday and welcome everyone who comes to the door, held at the Church on the corner of Malvern Road it’s easy to spot with the doors flung open and colourful signage outside.

Everyone is welcome to come and have a browse through the various rails of clothing and homewares and if you have a question about a particular item the volunteers are always happy to help. There are bargains to be found with £1 rails of both adult and children’s clothing as well as racks of accessories and shoes and toys for little ones.

Children are encouraged to visit and the café is child friendly although children are the responsibility of their grown up, the volunteers have taken steps to help keep them safe most recently they have installed a set of gates at the entrance to stop children running off onto the busy street. There is usually a craft table laden with plentiful crafting materials and careful planning goes into each session meaning the children come away having had fun creating masterpieces for their fridges, this week it included making colourful animals to stand up and display. With the café and craft station being close to one another parents can afford to sit back and savour their morning caffeine while keeping an eye on their children being creative.

The Friday mornings have been running for ten years and some of the visitors have been attending as long, the volunteers have only closed a couple of times in those ten years and plan only to close on Christmas Day and Good Friday. The Charity Shop runs on a donation basis with donations coming from far and wide, both from local people and families who are linked to the Church. The only items turned away are white goods, everything else is sorted in the back room and sent out to the rails where they are usually snapped up quickly due to the very reasonable pricing.

Funds raised are put towards the United Free Church to enable it to continue contributing to the local community but they do more than this to help and reach out. Through the holidays you might spot some fresh faces helping pour your coffee or bring out new stock, this is probably down to Duke of Edinburgh Award candidates completing a part of their award or individuals adding to their CV. Donations such as craft items are also sent to local schools and coffee mornings are held every so often for the benefit of charities such as Macmillan.

If you would like to volunteer with this wonderful group they could use a few extra pairs of hands to help set up on a Thursday afternoon, please get in touch with the Church directly if you would like to get involved or drop into their coffee morning you will be very welcome!