8:26am Monday 15th June 2009
By Jim Greenhalf
The Parish Centre at 43 Station Road, opposite the Co-op in Burley-in-Wharfedale, would not look out of place in Stockholm or Helsinki.
The pale-cream coloured two-storey building has a pitched roof, a smart recessed picture window on the ground floor and attractive corner windows upstairs.
The four rooms include the Garden Room, a cafe for young mums where they can buy a tea, coffee and toasted teacakes and have a chat with friends, and Open Door.
This is a drop-in centre where villagers or passers-by can come in for a chat, read the morning papers, have simple refreshments, or just spend time on their own.
It’s open Monday to Friday (closed on Thurdays), from 10am to Noon and 2pm to 4pm. Open Door only functions at all because of the efforts of volunteers.
The new building opened two years ago, but Open Door has been offering a home-from-home for 12 years. It used to be located in a former hairdresser’s owned by the Jepson family, whose name is remembered in the shape of The Jepson conference room upstairs.
That building was demolished and, thanks to the sale of land of a former church school belonging to St Mary’s Parish Church, funds were made available to pay for a new building.
Bob Wilson, five years into retirement from his job as a tax collector, signed up as a volunteer ten years ago. His wife Liz was already active and still organises the rota of volunteers.
Although the building is owned by the parish, Bob is at pains to emphasise the non-denominational nature of Open Door.
“We do not push religion. We are a religiously-owned organisation, but not everyone who volunteers is a member of the church. We have office facilities, so in all there are about 80 volunteers. We only pay for a cleaner and a window cleaner.
“The majority of volunteers are retired people who have the odd hour or so they have to give,” he says.
Most of Open Door’s voluntary workers are women. Although there is no formal training, there are rules.
“You don’t ask leading questions, you don’t interrogate people if they come in to talk. We are careful as to who becomes a volunteer because we must respect privacy.
“Some volunteers were in professional jobs. The majority are women. Some are widows, some haven’t married at all. What we are looking for is anybody who is a good listener, who has patience and can make a good cup of tea,” he adds.
Bob said Open Door was the original idea of the former vicar of the parish church, the Reverend Peter Sutcliffe. Appropriately, the current incumbent is the Reverend Michael Burley.
Up to 600 people a month are liable to drop in to Open Door.
“On a daily session we can have up to 25 people in the morning, and again in the afternoon. You do get your regulars, like everywhere else. They know each other. But I would say we can get about 40 different people in on a day,” says Mr Wilson.
“Open Door is not commercial. We don’t charge for tea, coffee and biscuits, but we do have a donation box at the centre. It goes to defray the cost of the milk and biscuits.
“It’s very much a social place. The windows are full of posters about events going on in the village. It’s the social hub of the village. It has taken off. I love the job; it’s a wonderful thing.”
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