The Sheffield General Cemetery Trust have set up a JustGiving page to help raise money for a new PA system in the Samuel Worth Chapel.
The chapel was left to ‘ruin’ after the last burial in 1976 until a group of people got together to form ‘Friends of the Cemetery’ in order to keep the area alive.
Samuel Worth was then renovated in 2016 with funds from a lottery the trust set up and other fundraising money.
Andy Smith, events manager for the trust said: ”So we have this amazing building and we, up until about two years ago, obviously with the pandemic, it was mainly doing weddings and the odd bits of pieces that people wanted to hire for.
”And it was kind of a bit lost. A couple of us have got involved, we looked at what we could do in here and we felt like it was a wasted resource for the city.”
In a year and a half, the venue has gone from ‘strength to strength’, even getting a request from a band in Spain to play in the Grade II listed chapel.
However, the equipment used for these events either need to go back to their original owner or they are close to breaking.
The Trust decided to crowdfund for equipment to better facilitate the local bands and artists, festival organisers, folk dance groups and others who hire the chapel out.
Mr Smith said: ‘’It’s really important that the money that we’ve spent into bringing this building back to life isn’t wasted and that it’s used as much as possible, to benefit the local community really.’’
The Trust are aiming to raise £4000 and have so far reached £1300, with most small donations coming from people who have come to the events, organisations that they work with and some other local venues.
Mr Smith said: ‘’It’s heart warming how just little bits of money from lots and lots of different people can make a difference and you know, we’ve got a little bit of money to start making some investments with the equipment we have got.”
If any local bands are interested in hiring out the chapel for a performance, get in contact with Andy by email: andy.smith@gencem.org.
You can donate to The Sheffield General Cemetery Trust here: Sheffield General Cemetery: Chapel Venue Fundraiser – JustGiving.