Bury St Edmunds Unitarian Meeting House's gin festival raises £500 towards new disabled ramp

A venue has raised £500 towards the cost of a new accessibility ramp through its first ever gin festival.

The Unitarian Meeting House in Bury held the event last weekend.

It was staged in association with Warren Events, and was made possible by around 40 volunteers, who helped serve a selection of gins to members of the public.

Spirits for the evening were provided by two Suffolk-based distilleries, Nethergate and Heart of Suffolk.

Venue manager Amanda Martin said: "We thought: 'If CAMRA can have a beer festival at the cathedral, why don't we open up our beautiful, baroque, 300-year-old building, and have something classy, like a gin festival?'

"We had such good feedback, and we're now putting the money towards a disabled ramp. We're trying to turn the meeting house into a lovely, inclusive building."

The installation of a new disabled ramp in the building will cost over £3,000, and more fundraisers are planned in the near-future to raise this total.

This includes a swish event, to be held on November 11.

Mrs Martin said: "A lot of people had never been in the building before the festival, and they were absolutely flabbergasted by how elegant the building was.

"We're really keen that the Unitarian Meeting House continues to be a venue for people to hold their meetings at, hold their celebrations at - and, also, to hold wellbeing events at."