Chance to look inside St Annes Palace on community open day

Last year’s debut for the event at the venue in Garden Street, St Annes which has become a successful community hub in recent years attracted more than 500 visitors eager to find our more about a similar number of organisations.

This year’s open day will be opened by singer Anne Nolan in the presence of St Annes town mayor Coun Cheryl Little and introduced by town crier Colin Ballard and the event will include a large masonic exhibition, as the masons, the local branch of which owns the Palace, celebrates its 300th anniversary this year.

The line-up of community organisations has been co-ordinated by Bev Sykes of the Just Good Friends companionship group, which was the first to use the Palace for meetings after it was made available for community use by the masons.

Among those which which attended last year’s debut open day were Fylde Veterans, Fylde Coast YMCA, the Soroptimists, St Annes Chamber of Trade and Age Uk and many are returning this year.

Everyone is welcome to go along and take a look at the facilitues in the building, which were a theatre and cinema for years before becoming the home of the Lytgham St Annes branch of the masons in the late 1950s.

John Burgess, chairman of the Friends of the Palace, said: “It is a great occasion for community groups around the Fylde to bring to the attention of the community the services they have available.

“It also provides a great opportunity to view this wonderful building and its facilities of what has become the community hub of the town.

“The brilliant part about the open day from the Palace perspective is that people have returned and said how much they value the event not only to bring their services to the attention of the public but that also it provides a great networking opportunities between exhibiting organisations.

“Great credit goes to Bev for organising the list of attendees.”

The open day runs from 10am to 4pm on Saturday.