Greyabbey & District Community Association receives The King’s Award for Voluntary Service

5th December 2023

Greyabbey & District Community Association (GADCA) and its volunteer group, ‘Friends of the Abbey’, have just been awarded The King’s Award for Voluntary Service. This is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE.

The village of Greyabbey is fortunate to have, as its greatest asset, a magnificent 800 year old Cistercian Abbey, which gave the village its name. ‘Friends of the Abbey’ volunteers, working as a trusted partner of the Historic Environment Division of DfC, are involved in caring for, and sharing the story of Grey Abbey.

The gardening team’s work includes looking after the rare Physic Garden and the guided tour volunteers share the story of the Abbey with visitors from far and wide. All voluntary donations made by visitors are used initially to care for the Abbey, but funds are channelled as well, by GADCA, into benefitting the village community in a variety of ways, such as free community celebrations of the Jubilee and the Coronation in recent times.

The King’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by local volunteer groups to benefit their communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s Golden Jubilee and, following his accession, His Majesty The King emphasised his desire to continue the award. Recipients are announced annually on 14th November, The King’s Birthday.

GADCA / ‘Friends of the Abbey’ is one of 262 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups across the UK and Channel Islands to be given the prestigious award for 2023. The group is among nine in Northern Ireland, and is the only one in County Down to be honoured this year. Representatives will receive the award crystal and certificate from Mr Gawn Rowan Hamilton DL, Lord Lieutenant of County Down.

Speaking on behalf of the group, Sue Newell says “ We are absolutely delighted to receive this honour from His Majesty. It recognises great commitment, over many years, by volunteers, most of whom are Greyabbey residents. The generosity of our visitors to the Abbey has enabled us to fund lots of projects to benefit our local community, which is gratifying in itself. However, we never expected to have the group’s efforts recognised in this way, so you could say we are really chuffed!”

Sue also paid tribute to the many other volunteers in the village who give of their time to help the community in numerous ways - Greyabbey, a little village with a big heart!

The support of the Tourism section at Ards and North Down Borough Council is also much appreciated by the Friends of the Abbey.

Find out more about The Kings Award for Voluntary Service 2023 and about Grey Abbey.