Memory Lane Cafe began life in February 2016 when we started our Sowerby Bridge cafe. We were formed as a community group composed entirely of volunteers – on the committee and as volunteers at the cafe. Since 2016 our group has grown (now with a cafe in Halifax – so that’s 4 cafes a month in total). To support this, we have a growing team of committed volunteers who not only run the cafes but get involved with other activities (such as trips out) and fund-raising events. The increasing scale of what we do at Memory Lane led us to apply to the Charity Commission to be a registered charity and, in June 2018, we achieved this.
We are now Registered Charity No 1178595 and, because someone else had already registered the name of “Memory Lane Cafe”, we’ve registered our official title as “Memory Lane Cafe Calderdale”. We now use our officially-registered name and number on our letters and documents – but, for practical purposes , we will still call ourselves “Memory Lane Cafe” – because that’s how everybody knows us in the area. Being a registered charity brings benefits to us – for example, we are eligible to claim Gift Aid on donations. What it doesn’t do is change who we are, what we do and how we do it – we are all still volunteers. What it does do is show our commitment to carry on into the future. Our enthusiastic team of volunteers continue to welcome people to our cafes.
