Thursday Group, originally known as "Young Wives", was founded in 1958 by a group of Methodist ladies who felt the need for a special club. The first President was Mrs Richardson, the wife of the Minister, and the secretary was Molly Lungley. The group met on the fourth Thursday of each month and organised a varied programme.

As the group evolved, "Young Wives" became "Wives" and finally "Thursday Group" which was deemed to be all-embracing (some of our members now being widows or divorcees). We now meet twice monthly, on the second and fourth Thursdays, and we have a variety of speakers, demonstrations, craft evenings and outings. We are responsible for Coffee Mornings on the Third Thursday of the month when we also run a charity stall.

Fund-raising has gradually taken on a higher profile and over the past 10 years we have raised a total of £12,700 which has been donated to different charities, many of them concerned with medical research. Over the same period we have given £450 to "Network" and £460 in one-off payments to local charities who have provided us with speakers. As a group we sponsor one of the children at the Eden High School, Uganda, where we have maintained links since providing the community with a water pipe in 2004.

We are an outreach group offering friendship and support to anyone who cares to join us. Each meeting starts at 8.00pm with a short reading and prayer and we finish at about 9.30pm with refreshments.

If you need further information please contact April Stubley on 01279 726173.