Age UK Sheffield call for fundraisers to help with Hillsborough Park cafe project

Age UK Sheffield are calling for fundraisers to help raise money for a project restoring a historic building into a community cafe and activity centre in one of the city’s most popular parks.
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The derelict Grade II-listed Old Coach House, in Hillsborough Park, is set for a big renovation, along with the nearby Potting Shed.

The abandoned coach house was last used as a munitions store during the Second World War, but is now set to become a cafe run by an operator in the city and the Potting Shed will become a space for gardening, woodwork, metalwork, art, photography and other crafts.

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Age UK Sheffield will also manage the bowling pavilion and aims to create more opportunities for exercise such as aerobics and yoga for everyone to enjoy, including those with dementia and other long-term conditions.

Team behind Old Coach HouseTeam behind Old Coach House
Team behind Old Coach House

The plans have been around three years in the making and construction work is set to begin on site in autumn this year with the aim of opening the cafe next summer.

After £631,200 in support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, £20,000 secured in partner funding and contributing £100,000 itself, the charity is now hoping to raise the rest of the money needed with the support of the community.

At this stage, it is only gauging interest, but will be planning fundraising in the form of things like coffee mornings and 10 km runs later this year.

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Steve Chu, Age UK Sheffield chief executive, said: “Once we’ve got all the prices back from the people who will be doing the building work we will know exactly what the project is going to cost.

“At that time we will come out with a local fundraising appeal to ask people in the Hillsborough area and the rest of the city to help with fundraising activities like coffee mornings or 10km runs and other things they want to do."

He said anybody interested in fundraising or volunteering for the project should contact them now and then they will contact those people again when they have more details.

To contact Age UK Sheffield, email [email protected] or call 0114 250 2850.

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He said local support for the plans was positive and the charity was keen to continue community engagement as the project takes shape.

Mr Chu said: "We want to carry on involving the local community. It has been really positive and I think that was one of the reasons why the Lottery was really keen to support the project.

“We did a couple of public surveys last summer and the first one we did had more than 500 respondents - the majority of those lived in the S6 area - and 99.7 per cent agreed they really supported it.

“There will be an activity programme over the next year where there will be lots of opportunities for people to get involved and we’re going to do a local history project, asking people to contribute their memories of the park and photos and then we are also going to do a timeline display within the cafe which will be permanent exhibition.”

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