AN educational charity housed in the former mining museum in Earby is looking forward to the grand naming ceremony of its new cafe.

On Friday (April 8) friends and supporters will gather at the Old Grammar School in School Lane - one of the oldest buildings in Earby - to see the cafe given the name of one of the charity's greatest supporters, Morris Horsefield, who died last year.

The ceremony naming Maurice's Cafe will be carried out by Pendle MP Andrew Stephenson.

The Yorkshire Dales Mining Museum closed down in 2015. Since then, Robert Windle's Foundation, which owns the 400 year old building, has continued to provide help with education to the youth of the community. A handful of dedicated volunteers has run a charity shop from the building and a year ago opened a cafe.

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, the volunteers continued to sell donated items on Facebook, raising enough funds to be able to carry on distributing funds.

One of the volunteers, Alison Brewer, said: "Funds are raised by the resale of items; kind donations that are given to the charity.

"Throughout Covid, the Facebook auction really thrived. We were overwhelmed by the generosity and sheer quantity of superb quality donations.

"As a result of this, we were able to open up our grants system again, we had had to shut it down after running out of funds when upgrading the kitchen. The Old Grammar School is a perfect setting for the charity shop and its lovely little café which sells home baked cakes."

The charity is currently struggling for volunteers and has only enough to open the shop and cafe on Fridays, from 1pm to 4pm, but hopes people will come forward so it can open more often.

Alison said the open afternoons were getting increasingly popular including with a loyal group of regulars who came along to chat and do knitting or crafting.

Since Christmas, in addition to handing out £150 to ten schools, it has given a grant to Skipton Girls High School, towards the purchase of tracksuit tops; to Gisburn Road School, Barnoldswick, for 30 books; an emergency grant to Coates Lane primary, Barnoldswick for storm repairs; Thornton in Craven Primary School; West Craven Warriors Juniors.

Maurice Horsefield was connected with the Robert Windle Foundation and The Old Grammar School since the 1970s. He became involved when the Earby Pothole Group took over the lease of the Old Grammar School with a view to setting it up as a lead mining museum.

Alison said: "We thought it would be right and fitting to name the café after Morris as he was such an integral part of the Robert Windle Foundation.

"He is so sorely missed for his knowledge, enthusiasm and humour."

To find out more, including offering help, visit: https://www.robertwindlefoundation.org/ or find the charity on Facebook