News from Beverley

BEVERLEY Baptist Church have signed the lease on the Armstrong’s Sports and Social Club building to use for their Sunday meetings, and plan to make the venue available for community hire during the week.

Minister Phil Palmer said: “For the last 20 years our church has met in school halls on Sunday mornings, so we are really excited to be getting a permanent building.

"Armstrong’s Sports and Social Club is a well-known venue for birthday parties and events, and we plan to continue to make the rooms available for hire. In fact we had already received two enquiries for dance classes before the lease was signed!

“We have not finalised any plans yet, but we aim to create a facility which works for us when we meet as a Church, and which is a great resource for the local community to hold meetings and events.”

The building is sandwiched between Beverley station and Flemingate so it could not be more central to Beverley. It has an anonymous looking exterior, but inside you will find two large halls, a smaller ‘snug’ and a fully-fitted commercial kitchen.

The building needs some modernisation, so it will be redecorated internally and there will be some upgrades to improve access for wheelchairs and buggies, and to provide disabled toilet facilities.

The snooker tables will be going from the second hall to create a surprisingly large room – more than big enough to host children’s birthday parties for instance – and doubling the space available for hire.

Without a building during the Covid shut-downs - Beverley Baptist Church has been holding its meetings online – with services broadcast on YouTube and after-service coffee hosted on Zoom. Some of the older church members struggled a little at first with the technology, but with some help from others it has worked out as a good substitute for meeting together. There have often been more than 20 families on zoom for after church coffee, and zoom break-out rooms have meant we can have chats with small groups as well as being all together.

Now that a building is available it is hoped to start meeting for restricted worship on Sundays (socially distanced, no singing) – and eventually for less restricted services. Hiring the halls will have to wait a little longer until the refurbishments are complete and Covid restrictions have been lifted.

Bookings are not yet being taken to hire rooms, but enquiries can be made via the church email address - office@beverleybaptist.com