Speaker - Sarah Howland Chair of the Quarry Crew

Wed, Jan 16th 2019 at 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm

Sarah will give a talk on her work on the Stone Quarry Estate in East Grinstead.This is one of the President's chosen charities.


About Us

The Stone Quarry Crew began as a constituted resident run community group in May 2016. Our aim is to create opportunities for the residents of the Stone Quarry Estate to come together for social activities.

The Stone Quarry estate in East Grinstead lost most of it social gathering places of the past and as a result social isolation and antisocial behaviour increased. By bringing back opportunities for social interaction the Crew are striving to break down the social isolation barriers and address the antisocial behaviour through building stronger bonds and rebuilding a more cohesive community.


What we do

The Stone Quarry Crew has one main aim, to bring the community together through a variety of events throughout the year to give opportunities for the residents to socialise with friends and neigbours, make new friends and and start to rebuild a cohesive community. Most of the events we run are based around getting together with food and something to drink. This is based on the principle that a family that sits and eats together becomes a cohesive family that communicates well, by bringing the community family together in the same way will have the same results. Our events are for all ages, young, not so young and just young at heart!. We find activities that engage the younger people but still give them the freedom to connect and socialise with the rest of the community, plus if the adults wish to join in with the younger peoples activities they are more than welcome. The ethos of everything we provide is key to ensuring total inclusiveness and affordable for all is very high on the list of priorities, however the lowest possible cost to our residents doesn't mean low quality. We strive to provide the best quality that we can, to keep our residents coming back again and again. You wouldn't return to a restaurant if the quality was poor and if money is tight, there is nothing more insulting than receiving poor quality inreturn for the low price.


Our Community Café

Within 18 Months of starting the Stone Quarry Crew we were delighted to be able to open our Community Café. After our first event in the summer of 2016 it became very apparent that we would need to find a way to bring the community together on a much more regular basis than a couple of events per year. Over time the community spirit had depleted due antisocial behaviour, although things had improved from the past the continuing levels of antisocial behaviour were continuing to impact on social isolation. We started to make plans for a way to create a regular place for residents to get together and with the developement of the new community room in the new build on the site of St Luke's church we saw what we hoped would be an opportunity to open a regular community café. With the support of Clarion Futures (Affinity Sutton as it was then), we obtained the funding to plan the opening of the one day a week Quarry Café. Although the wait for the community room to be completed was longer than anticipated, with the help and support of St Luke's, we were able to open the Quarry Café for the first time on the 27th September 2017. The Quarry Cafe2 principle was based around a strong ethos of providing the highest possible quality at the lowest possible cost. Right from the start the Cafe2 has provided our residents with really great coffee and simple snacks and cakes, since our opening day we have gone on to add to our range as products became available that fitted our ethos. We believe that this ethos has contributed significantly in beyond expected results in both our growing customer base and our regular visitor numbers. Without doubt, the best part of the café has been watching the friendships build and the lenght of time that our residents come and stay at the café. Although we set up the Café for the residents of our community as the word is spreading we are find interest in our café from the local area beyond Stone Quarry.

'What We Do' Main Pages:

Monthly Newsletter for Meridian Rotary

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Isabel Afacan and Chloe Clark, both from Imberhorne School, represented Meridian Rotary in the District final held at Merton college, Morden on Saturday 4th February.

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Take a run through all our reports on this page and also our home page to find out what we do and when we do it.

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Worth School Senior Winner

The annual Meridian Rotary Youth Speaks debate to placate t Swithun's Church on Tuesday 21st November. The senior team and overall winner was the Worth School Senior Team and the intermediate team winner was Lingfield College Team B.

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Rotary on the Radio is presented every Friday afternoon between 2pm and 4pm by Anthony Beevor, Lesley Robinson and Ian King. The show is sponsored by Meridian Rotary here in East Grinstead.

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Rotary is a global network of 1.2 million neighbours, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.

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Whilst Rotary is a world-wide service organisation and a Charity, it is community-based with local club membership. Meridian Rotary Club has therefore enjoyed a long history of service to the local community.

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Our Rotary Club actively supports the youth of our community with the aim of developing their skills through a number of events and initiatives.

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Lesley Robinson

Would YOU like:- ● the satisfaction of contributing to our local community and helping vulnerable people throughout the world? ● to use your skills and experience to make a difference? ● to make new friends and network with like-minded people?

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At Meridian Rotary we always put the FUN into Fundraising! Every year we raise £000’s for our local community and international causes and also for other Rotary Charities.

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