VIDEO: New owners of St Thomas's Road Methodist Church, Spalding, unveiled as St Norbert's Roman Catholic Church buys building with £300,000 'gift' from member

A £300,000 gift from a member of St Norbert's Roman Catholic Church in Spalding has enabled it to buy Methodist chapel next door.

Retired bulbs trader and nurseries owner Peter Borst (85) and his wife Janet were the special guests for a handing over ceremony of St Thomas's Road Methodist Church on Friday.

Mr Borst, who moved to Spalding from the Netherlands in 1951, explained that the reason for his substantial gift to St Norbert's was because he wanted "to do something really nice for the community one day".

He said: "I came to Spalding with a push bike, an old suitcase with clothes in and £5.

"Nobody has given me anything and what I possess, I've had to earn myself.

"For the first few years, I worked for people in the nurseries industry until I managed to become self-employed.

"But I always felt that I had a lot of spiritual guidance which has helped no end with some major decisions and many people who know me will say I've done really well.

"For the last ten to 20 years, I've said to myself 'I'd like to do something really nice for the community one day and I'm unbelievably proud to have been able to buy this building for the church of St Norbert's.

"I've given it to them 100 per cent, but I've done this not only for the church, but for the whole community and the whole area of Spalding."

The church in St Thomas's Road was originally built in 1871 at a cost of £1,155, nearly £130,000 at today's prices.

After refurbishments in 1953 and 1996, members of St Norbert's, also in St Thomas's Road, held mass services at the Methodist church between 2002 and 2004 while a new Roman Catholic church building was under construction.

Father James Burke, parish priest of St Norbert's, said: "Peter and Janet Borst have been very generous to St Norbert's over the years and St Thomas's Road Methodist Church has been purchased outright with the funds provided by them.

"It means that, along with St Norbert's Church and Community Hall, we now have complete ownership of this site, giving us an opportunity to do something for the wider community.

"The church is too nice a building to be lose and when you look at it, we're the only ones who could make use of it.

"Local residents seem to be pleased that we've purchased the building and the messages we've received from them would suggest they are glad it's not going to be used for new housing."

The Rev Frances Ballantyne, of Broad Street Methodist Church where members of St Thomas's Road Methodist Church moved to in April, said: "We're absolutely delighted by this purchase and we really wish God's blessings on this development.

"We're very grateful and we look forward in hope to see what happens to this building."

A short service of blessing was led by Canon Eddy Jarosz, of Nottingham Diocese which includes Spalding, who said afterwards: The diocese is very pleased about the gift from Peter and Janet Borst which has enabled us to purchase this building.

"We can look forward to using it to support the mission work of the church in this part of south Lincolnshire."