Coffee and chat at Harnham Parish Hall in Salisbury

Every Wednesday and Saturday, a group of up to 20 or so people meets at a Warm Welcome Space in Harnham, Salisbury to share coffee or tea and biscuits, to chat, and to share the ups and downs of life.

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When we visited in January 2026, it was the third Wednesday of the month when some of the group go for a short wellbeing walk, organised every fortnight by Salisbury Ramblers. Being January, it was pouring with rain on this particular morning, but the walkers had dressed for the weather and a small but redoubtable group set off for a 30-minute stroll around the local area, sticking to pavements and with hoods pulled up against the weather.

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We stayed behind to talk to Charles Woodd, a retired civil servant who chairs Harnham Community Network and is a long-time supporter of Harnham Parish which has two churches: St George’s and All Saints, within a few 100 yards of each other.

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The coffee and chat group is run by the Community Network, and meets at the Parish Hall next to St George’s church, which has been refurbished in recent years.

The Network’s activities also include a monthly Film Night, which meets at the nearby Harnham Social Club, and throughout the summer there is a weekly Harvest Table where local folk share their bumper crops from gardens and nearby allotments with their neighbours.

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The Parish Hall also hosts a monthly First Wednesday Talk, run by Harnham Parish Churches. In December, we had a Winter Miscellany with people bringing either a piece of music to sing or play; some prose or a poem, and this spring, thoughts turned to late local hero George Herbert, a 17th century vicar in a neighbouring Salisbury parish who was also a renowned poet and a hymn writer.

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It’s a small but well supported group of mainly older people who meet at Coffee and Chat although the space is open to people of all ages and, on the day we visited, a local graphic designer was in the space, drinking tea and doodling on his A4 pad of paper.

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Harnham’s Coffee and Chat offers a warm welcome, run by a rota of volunteers who live locally, and only asks for donations for tea and coffee which help cover the cost of supplies.

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It’s yet another example of people regularly getting together in a warm welcome space, to live alongside and support each other.

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