All fun and games at Telford church's toy library

On the second Saturday of every month, kids can marvel at a room full of colourful toys and games at Dawley Baptist Church.

From 10am to 12pm, the library is open for business and having had its second event at the weekend, organisers at the church said it has been a successful launch.

Baptist minister Ian Oliver said: "The idea of the toy library is essentially so it can be there for families to come to on a Saturday morning with their children and play with a whole heap of different toys.

"As much as anything else it's to provide a sense of community. It gives the chance for children to meet other children outside of school and parents can meet parents – it's an informal, relaxed way to meet new people.

"It's been great so far. Those that have come have really enjoyed it and had a good time."

Mr Oliver added that the church first announced the idea in September last year and since then has received dozens of toy and game donations.

He added: "If there is a toy that one child particularly likes they can take it home with them, play with it, and bring it back next month to swap it for another toy, so it works the same as a library in that regard.

"But if it's late back it's obviously not a problem. We've had loads of toys kindly donated to us so it wouldn't be the end of the world if one didn't come back.

"That's the thing with this, there isn't that kind of pressure of thinking, 'oh my, I need to be free on the second Saturday of next month', just to return a toy.

"We have someone training with us at the moment, Tom Bowring, him and his wife have been particularly involved with putting this on and making it happen."

The church on Park Road is set to be renovated in the coming months with various grant funding applications proving successful.