Further information about Listening Ear (Merseyside) is available here.
When the church inspection took place in 1989, the Church Council was faced with the fact that the church was badly in need of repair. The church meeting rooms, formerly the Church of England Primary School, also needed renovation.
Plans were formulated to sell off the old school buildings and schoolhouse to a developer who would have no difficulty in re-selling the picturesque old buildings, protected by a conservation order.
The money raised would go towards the building of a new purpose built church hall and much needed repairs to the church. A building fund was launched and an architect brought in to draw up plans.
Shortly afterwards a children's home (which 10 years earlier had been built on land bought from the church by the Borough of Knowsley) sadly closed. As this site was adjacent to the church it became obvious to some far sighted members of the Church Council that it would make an ideal church centre. Knowsley was approached with a business plan, and, after protracted negotiations, the St Nicholas Church Centre was opened in 1995.
The funding for this huge project was raised through the sale of the old school buildings and a mortgage paid for by covenanted monthly giving from our church family. The new Centre consisted of three wings of rooms and a central hall, kitchen and meeting rooms. Two of the wings were converted into student accommodation to help towards the running costs. After two years the three wings were changed into six self contained flats to provide affordable housing. The Centre is also the base for the charity Listening Ear (Merseyside) which is a voluntary organisation that provides a free listening and counselling service to the people of Merseyside.
The Centre is now more-or-less self sufficient and is managed by a Committee which reports to the St Nicholas' District Church Council. It has proved invaluable in bringing the rapidly growing community together. Recent years have seen extensive refurbishment to the external areas, including the replacement of all gutters, pipes, fascias and soffites in new UPVC, repair and re-painting of woodwork, and the replacement of security and fire alarms.
Further information about the St Nicholas' Centre, Halewood, is available from the Parish Office.
You can email the Parish Office by clicking this link or by sending an email to HalewoodParish (at) BTConnect (dot) com
(Note: Replace '(at)' and '(dot)' with '@' and '.')
Telephone:
+44 (0151) 487 9965
Postal Address:
The St Nicholas' Centre, 70 Church Road, Halewood, LIVERPOOL. L26 6LA