Winthrop was delighted to welcome Jake Richards MP to officially open Winthrop’s new Café and Gardens Development earlier this year. Many friends and supporters of Winthrop were able to join in celebrating the secure and sustainable future which this development brings to Winthrop, based in Wickersley.
Chair of Wickersley Parish Council, John Barber, said: “In 2016 the Parish Council stepped in and bought Winthrop to save it from closure. We did so knowing that most of the buildings had a very limited life. Thanks to the £264K grant from the Government’s Community Ownership Fund and the surplus built up by volunteers over the last nine years, we now have a Café very much ‘fit for the future’ and lots of exciting plans for the development of our gardens in the areas from which the old buildings have been removed. Winthrop now has a future – a very bright future.”
Winthrop is open Tuesday to Thursday each week, from 10.30am to 3.00pm and opening until 4.00pm from the beginning of April. You can find Winthrop down on Second Lane, off Morthen Road in Wickersley (S66 1EE)
Jake Richards MP added: “It was a great honour to officially open Winthrop’s new Café development. This is an incredible building and a fabulous facility for the whole community. Run by over 90 hardworking and dedicated volunteers, Winthrop is home to many brilliant activities, including a Memory Café, a Carers Support Group, Men’s Group and Walking Groups.
“They also run lots of events – like the Annual Bake Off and I know this year they have great plans to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of WWII at the beginning of May. Winthrop is a great place which is
going to be around for decades and decades to come and these new facilities represent a really exciting new start for Winthrop, Wickersley and the wider community.”
Winthrop Men’s Group
This group is for older men living alone and Winthrop is pleased to provide a monthly opportunity for them to get together for a cuppa, quiz, soup and a chat. The current guys are friendly and welcoming and really enjoy meeting together and forming new friendships – not the easiest thing to do as you get older. Know anyone who might be interested? Interested yourself? Please help spread the word.
The group meets on the first Thursday morning of every month, except January, between 10.30am and 12.30pm. The next meeting of the group is on Thursday 6th March.
International Women’s Day 2025
Following on from their very successful event in March 2024, Winthrop are looking for partners to help them support their chosen charity – the Toybox appeal (www.toybox.org.uk) – as part of their 2025 International Women’s Day event.
Their event will be on Friday 7th March 2025 – the day before International Women’s Day – and will be held at Wickersley Community Centre starting at 3.00pm for 3.30pm and ending at 5.30pm. Tickets cost £10.00 and are now on sale at Winthrop.
Toybox work with street children across the world – raising funds to help them register children and get them a birth certificate – their first step to moving off the streets. Their project in Kenya seems particularly appropriate for International Women’s Day as it will enable girls and women in Wickersley to work together to help girls and young women in Kenya.
This project in Nairobi is called ‘Wezesha’ which means ‘to empower’ and works with women and girls, many of whom lack access to identification documents, thus limiting their ability to access essential services such as healthcare and education. This project focuses on supporting women and girls to get their birth certificates and identity documents as well as providing training to help build their resilience through economic empowerment and awareness of their rights.
Fundraising from Winthrop’s event could make a real difference. Providing young children with birth certificates costs an average of £12 and providing business startup kits (for example sewing machines and equipment for young women training in tailoring) costs £115 per person.
If you think this is something your organisation might like to partner up with Winthrop on, please call Anna Chester on 07937 039226.