Published on: Wednesday, 12 September 2018
Last updated: Wednesday, 12 September 2018
The Friends of March Station have raised over £300 for further renovation work thanks to an open day held during Heritage Open Days weekend.
Over 200 people from the local community donated to the fund after being given the chance to visit areas of the station not normally open to the public and see the progress of the work to renovate the disused side of the station.
Visitors were also treated to a model railway exhibition with displays by the B17 Steam locomotive trust, model railway builder, Martin Wickham’s 'Findhorn Yard ' layout, and the beginnings of the Friends of March Station’s own model railway, which will be permanently housed at the station in a room they specially renovated for this purpose.
The event took place on 8 September, the last of three events organised by the volunteer group this year to showcase the work they do as station adopters and raise money for further improvements.
Organisations who attended and supported the event included Macmillan Cancer Relief, the Retired Greyhound Trust, the Friends of Rings End Nature Reserve, March Street Pride, March Cambridgeshire History Group, and the Bramley Line Group, as well as the Friends of March Station volunteers who served tea, coffee and cakes all day.
Adrian Sutterby, who leads the Friends of March Station said, “This event was a great finale to our series of open days and was very well supported by the community and local organisations.
“We would like to thank everyone who came for their generous donations. The money raised will really help us continue to restore the disused side of the station so that the rooms can come back into community use.”
Paul Haynes, Greater Anglia’s Community Partnerships Manager, said, “This is a great example of bringing a station building right back into the heart of the community and was a lovely event. We are very grateful to the Friends of March station for their hard work which has brought real benefits to the community by bringing these disused rooms back into use. There are many more rooms like this at stations across our network available to community groups and I would urge anyone who has an idea for a project to get in touch.”
Greater Anglia is offering empty spaces in stations to local communities across Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire. Anyone who is interested should visit https://www.greateranglia.co.uk/about-us/community-space