Farnborough & District Samaritans opened in 1978, formed as an offshoot of the nearby Bracknell and Guildford branches. Based in the old police station along Alexandra Road in North Camp, we were given almost complete use of the building. In fact, our interviews for new volunteers were held in the old cells! After two years, the police station was sold and demolished, so Farnborough Samaritans had to find new premises.
A local parish made note of this in their newspaper and one of the churchgoers, Miss V, very kindly invited us to share her home in North Camp. She allowed us the use of rooms at the front of her house while she continued to live in the rest of the house. Sadly, Miss V eventually became too frail to remain in her home, so we were again on the hunt for a new building.
In December 1997, we moved into our current premises at 182A Farnborough Road. Shortly afterwards, Miss V died, and was incredibly generous in leaving her house to Samaritans for the benefit of the community. Unfortunately, the house itself wasn’t suitable as our premises, but from the sale of the house we were able to extend our Farnborough Road building and create a larger operations room, with a space for meetings and training.
During this extensive renovation, we needed a temporary home. We were very fortunate to be offered space at Coldstream Barracks in Aldershot free of charge, allowing us to continue our work uninterrupted.
More than four decades since Farnborough & District Samaritans first opened, we are still going strong. With over 120 volunteers based at our building at 182A Farnborough Road, we work closely with the local community and support all those who need to talk. Thanks to the incredible generosity of Miss V and others involved with our operations, such as Rushmoor Council, we have been able to keep our service running constantly for over 40 years.