Garstang church receives a major grant from the WLFC

The West Lancashire Freemasons’ Charity has made a major Community Grant of £5,000 to St Thomas’ Parish Church in Garstang.

Tony Harrison presents Rev Stephen Grey with the cheque for £5,000.

For many years the church has utilised an old school building as a parish hall. This hall has also been used by the wider community of Garstang for recreational classes, and as a blood donor centre.

Unfortunately, time has taken its toll on the building and it has become less fit for purpose with a great deal of expenditure being needed to comply with all current regulations and to equip the accommodation to service the community fully. External extensions and changes were not possible as the building is in a conservation area.

The church therefore embarked upon an ambitious scheme to build a new hall, custom designed to flexibly satisfy the needs of the community of Garstang. Land was available adjacent to the church and this was procured from the Diocese of Blackburn.

Plans were approved and work duly started, but available funds have not thus far been sufficient to see the project through to completion. The building is currently roofed and weather-tight awaiting a further injection of funding to enable building work to continue.

In the meantime, however, the West Lancashire Freemasons’ Charity made a presentation to Wyreside Lodge No 2605 in Garstang. Part of this presentation made reference to the Community Grant scheme. This scheme provides grants for charitable purposes to help community schemes within the Province of West Lancashire. Eligibility includes local charities and managed voluntary groups and most relevantly includes community projects.

Those local masons who are also members of the congregation of St Thomas’ Church, decided to make an application for a grant specifically for the provision of disabled toilets in the new church hall.

The application was successful and Assistant Provincial Grand Master Tony Harrison was delighted to present the vicar of St Thomas’ with a cheque for £5,000. The presentation was made at the end of a Thursday morning Communion service and gave Tony the opportunity to explain to the congregation about the West Lancashire Freemasons’ Charity and the work that it does for good causes in the community which resulted in a spontaneous and resounding round of applause.