The History of the Charity

HOW IT BEGAN  

    

 

The Building

The building itself was originally a Baptist Church, built in 1879 to serve the new parish of Rowbarton, which had grown up in the 25 years since Brunel’s railway had been pushed through from Bristol to Exeter. 

The Church attracted a thriving, vibrant congregation and soon the building was extended to provide facilities for the many groups, clubs and societies that met there.

The Church continued to serve the community around Albemarle Road, all through the Wars until the congregation began to dwindle through the 1960’s and 70’s and finally in 1978 the Baptist Church because of financial necessity, were forced to close its doors.  The congregation then had to travel to the other side of Taunton to attend Silver Street Chapel.  

                                            The Charity

During the 1970’s, two gentlemen, who are now part of Albemarle folklore, Mr. Brian Heaton and Mr. Robert Wagstaff, were working at Sandhill Park Mental Handicap Hospital, where they started the Sandhill Park Youth Club.

The club, under the umbrella of Taunton Deane Youth Service flourished, despite considerable obstructive behaviour from some hospital staff. The club used community facilities to enable its members to join in with regular youth service activities as much as possible.  In those days the idea of people with mental handicap problems participating in the wider community was considered impractical and strongly resisted. 

The Club today is known as the Tuesday Club and its 25 or so members still meet at the Albemarle once a week.

Through the vision of Brian and Robert, along with some other Sandhill staff, that used to meet regularly for lunch, the idea was born of a ‘pub without the beer’ in the heart of Taunton, where everyone was welcome and where people with ‘special needs’ would be treated as individuals and as equals.  

By coincidence both Brian and Robert became involved with the local Mencap Society, who at the time were looking to purchase a hostel, but unfortunately their funds had been unable to keep abreast of inflation.  

The local society thought that the  'Pub' was a good idea and a steering group was formed to look for a suitable place.  'The Albemarle Chapel' was thought to be the best, but it was far too big.  At the same time the National Mencap were looking for new regional offices and offered to buy the freehold of the building and create a lease for the 'Pub' on the ground floor. 

Brian gathered together a group of influential local people and formed a Board of Governors, to help him run the project.  Many of those original Governors are still on the Board today.

Work started to convert the chapel into offices and meeting rooms, with particular attention being paid to the décor and equipment, in order to get away from the traditionally dowdy image associated with disabled people. 

A first floor was added, doubling the floor space, a range of alterations were made to other rooms to provide a second entrance, further meeting rooms corridor and kitchen.  The Centre was specifically adapted throughout so that wheelchair users or people with limited mobility could access all parts of the building.

However, after the work had started, Mencap decided that they would rather have a series of smaller offices around the region and offered to sell the freehold to the Governors.  The Governors, after a very deep breath, decided they had no option other than to buy and so set about raising the funds.  Of course, nothing is ever simple and the house next to the Centre was put up for sale at this time.   In order to keep faith with all of the loyal supporters, who had made such efforts and raised so much money during the Mencap appeal, as well as holding to the local societies aim of providing living accommodation, the Board decided to buy the house as well.  

So began the Albemarle Centre as it is today, with Sir Brian Rix, the then Chairman of Mencap, formally opening the Centre, amid unforgettable scenes of bare steel girders festooned with fairy lights, and wheelbarrows and cement mixers full of flowers.