A couple who started the first youth club in the town have decided to call it a day after 27 years.

Barry and Waltraud Englefield were committed to providing somewhere for the youth of the town to mix and have fun, began the Monmouth Youth Project back in 1997, working hard to find a venue for the first youth club for the town.

At an informal gathering of the trustees of the project, the Beacon heard how they faced enormous challenges in just finding the right venue.

It began after talking to Barry’s nephews and nieces who said there was nowhere in Monmouth for young people to go, so Waltraud and Barry set up the Monmouth Youth Project Trust in 1998 as a charity and began the long hunt for premises.

A public meeting in the Shire Hall was called and after a list of 30 premises was drawn up - many proved unsuitable or unpopular with neighbours - it was pointed out a lease was available on rooms above the bus station and after a lottery grant was secured for £250,000, they began the town’s first youth club.

The lease cost them £24,000 a year and after grants from Monmouth town and county councils, they still had to fundraise over £4,000 a year through charity abseils and zip wire events.

Then Selwyn and Maxine’s groundfloor Chatterbox Cafe became available so they were then on two levels.

In 2010, faced with an £8,000 cost for painting the front of the building through the repairing lease they had, made them consider packing it all in, but Liz Hackett-Pain, a county councillor at the time, stepped in and through the county council, succeeded in securing new premises in the former rates office behind the library.

All the counters and security glass had to be removed for which the project secured another grant so it could be suitable for the youth of the area.

“It was really good premises,” explained Waltraud, “as it was close to the school, and for the first time, the project was able to offer counselling, careers advice and other agency services” .

“The scheme, which we thought would only last for about five years, set out what we wanted to do.

“Never did we dream it would still be going 27 years later”.

They met up recently with some of the first users of the youth club who had returned as volunteers to help run it and told the couple, “If it hadn't been for the project and the Attik, I wouldn’t be here”, and that made it all worthwhile, added Waltraud.

Through age and health-related concerns, the pair who became trustees of the project along with former mayor Terry Christopher and Anthea Dewhurst are standing down and have wound up the Trust, transferring the funds to the care of Rotary Monmouth for safe-keeping and MCC’s Monlife have now taken over the running of the venue.

The couple plan to spend more time travelling in the campervan that Barry has built.