SEVEN months after opening its doors for the first time, a community-run café and shop continues to go from strength to strength with projects to refurbish the outdoor area planned.
Cotherstone Old Chapel café and shop opened in June last year following five years of tireless work by a team of volunteers to bring the project to fruition.
Since then, the community-run establishment, which employs several staff members in the shop and café but also relies on dedicated volunteers to help out, has welcomed more than 8,000 customers through the doors, serving up 3,085 pots of tea and more than 2,900 homemade scones.
Chris Tarpey, treasurer of the management committee, said: “We are very happy with the way it is going so far. When you think about it we are only really in our second season of being open.
“The first season, when we opened in June, was very busy and it was a learning curve.
“It continues to be busy. We are continually evolving and finding ways to bring in new customers and volunteers.”
Fellow committee member Andrea Hobbs added: “There is another grant in the pipeline around volunteering and extending the opportunities for them, but we are waiting to hear about that.”
As well as providing an informal space for groups to meet and socialise such as crafters Sisters in Stitch, the Old Chapel, has plans to host more “pop-up” events that proved a big hit when fundraising.
Mr Tarpey added: “We’re going to be doing another repair cafe for cycles and a digital computer cafe. We’ll have the computers here so people can pop in and use them but it would be a great opportunity for a younger resident to share their knowledge of how to do things online.
“We’re also looking at doing a very informal mother and toddler time. It’s not a group, but we would just be looking at setting aside time in the cafe for young mums to meet up with their toddlers to socialise.”
Now the interior of the Old Chapel is fully restored, the volunteer team have turned their attention to the outside space.
He said: “We have four volunteer teams now. We have people who help in the café and shop and there is the heritage team which researches and creates the history displays on show. Now the renovation work has finished the building team keeps on top of maintenance.
“Our final volunteer group is the gardening team, and we are looking to get more people interested in helping.
“We have got a grant from Durham County Council for £17,000, which is very nice, to develop the outdoor areas with level car parking, outdoor seating and a community garden with composting area.”
As well as levelling the car park to the rear of the Old Chapel the outdoor work includes installing a number of raised beds where vegetables and salads can be grown for use in the cafe, outdoor seating and the creation of a wildlife area complete with bug hotels.
Mr Tarpey said: “We are hoping most of the garden will be done by the end of March. Rob Carr, who heads up our volunteer gardening team, is doing a gardening session on Friday, February 28, and we are looking to get more people interesting in helping for this project.”
Anyone interested in finding out more about the volunteer opportunities at the Old Chapel in Cotherstone should contact [email protected] or call Mr Tarpey on 01833 650087.
