Somerset’s Freemasons have been pleased to support a new community initiative in the village of Keinton Mandeville.
The village has both Community and Village Halls. ‘Tea@3’ meets every two weeks at the Community Hall, with the alternate weeks being hosted at the Village Hall, with the help of Parish Council sponsorship.
The Community Hall is located on the ground floor of the grade 2 listed Methodist Chapel, which was built in 1843 by volunteer quarrymen from the village.
In order to support the local community, especially the elderly, young children and those less fortunate, the Chapel only requests that very modest financial contributions be made, enough to hopefully cover the running costs involved in hosting the events in question.
As the cold weather approached this winter, the Chapel started a fortnightly ‘Tea@3’ afternoon session, where members of its community, including school children and their parents, were invited to visit for a cup of tea and a slice of cake in the warmth of the Hall in order to chat and play board games as an after-school club.
The first sessions were very well attended and hailed a resounding success; however, providing modern, user-friendly furnishings was a problem for the ‘Tea@3’ organisers if regular events were to continue. Somerset Freemasons stepped in, through donation and active engagement, to part-enable sufficient round tables, chairs and bean bags for all of the various activities to take place.
The Deputy Provincial Grand Master for Somerset, Ben Batley, was pleased to be in attendance at a recent ‘Tea@3’ event, where all were entertained by the local school choir, in addition to a wide variety of other activities. Methodist Chapel Minister Rev. Colin Moore was on hand to thank Somerset’s Freemasons for their generous donation of £500 from the Somerset Masonic Charities, an amount which has since been matched by the Chapel Trustees, sufficient to enable events to continue during the current winter months and for some years to come.
Ben said:
“It’s an honour and privilege to be able to actively engage in the local community in order to develop new diverse-background groups, supported through donations from our members, and to highlight the continuing relevance of Masonry as a positive part of our communities”.
Colin said:
“We are extremely thankful for the generous assistance provided by Somerset Freemasons to enable future ‘Tea@3’ events, which we acknowledge by the permanent display of your Masonic logo here in the Community Hall. Thank you to all of your members”.Somerset’s Freemasons have been pleased to support a new community initiative in the village of Keinton Mandeville.
