THE new community cafe in Grays Town Park has been officially opened by borough Mayor Cllr Sue Shinnick.

It will now be open every Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm.

Earlier this year grants from Thurrock Council, Riverside Community Big Local and a £10,000 award from Tarmac's Landfill Communities Fund enabled the Friends of Grays Town Park to oversee an overhaul of the site and major landscaping work to be carried out on the east side of the park.

The cafe is one of the final pieces in the improvement jigsaw planned for the park which was formerly a brick quarry in the 1800s. It was the first public space in the area to be given to the people in 1887.

In 1930 a shelter was built in the park, by a local family in remembrance of their husband and father Jonathan Seabrooke, a prominent local businessman and owner of Seabrooke brewery in Grays. It remains a fine example of a Victorian park.

You can lean more about the park via this link.