The Victoria Kitchen
Pastor encouraged the Church to consider upgrading our kitchen facilities in 2009. Not only were the facilities old and becoming outdated, there was no hatch to serve food directly into our hall where most of our meals are held.
Two options were initially considered and costed in 2012. One was to use what is known as the ‘primary room’ on the other side of the building and re-purpose the current kitchen for general usage. The other was an upgrade to the exiting kitchen. Both plans included a hatch through to the hall. The latter scheme had first been considered by the Church in the mid 1980s.
Because of other priorities the kitchen project had to be put on the ‘back burner’ for a number of years. Our existing kitchen, of course, did not get any younger and in the end we warned that if we did not modernise soon we would be at risk of loosing our much coveted five star food hygiene rating.
Though it sadly involved the demise of another Church, providence was not lacking. Our Mother Church, Victoria Baptist Church, had been forced to close but in a last act of support to the community here they left us a legacy from the sale of their building specifically to be used for the kitchen here.
After protracted wrangles with the Baptist Union and with the support of SEBA the funds were released to allow the project to move forward.
Eventually it was decided to upgrade the existing kitchen as moving the necessary utilities across the Church building was too expensive for us to achieve. Work started in August 2019 with the majority of the work carried out by local firm County Builders. When the kitchen was finished it was dedicated by the Revd.Jerry Newson, SEBA Regional Minister on Sunday 16th June. We were due our Environmental Health inspection just after completion and were pleased to keep our five star Food Hygiene rating.
The kitchen has already been put to good use, especially as part of our new weekly ‘Together on Tuesdays’ events which include a lunch every week. The new serving hatch has proved an invaluable asset for weekday activities and especially for serving after Church refreshments. We have a lovely new kitchen and are grateful to God and to our friends from our Mother Church who were kind enough to think of us at a difficult time for themselves. We have called our kitchen 'The Victoria Kitchen.'
There is a gallery of photos showing different stages of the kitchen project from conception to completion. Please follow the link here