THE first-ever customer of the Reader’s Halt secondhand book and railway memorabilia stall on Minehead station made a welcome return on Saturday August 3 when the stall marked its 21st anniversary and celebrated raising a total of £500,000.

Local resident and regular West Somerset Railway traveller Roy Williams remembered spending £12 on a brass statue of a miner with a wagon of coal in 1998 and took it along to the celebration.

The £500,000 mark was reached by a purchase made at 10.50am, and Friends of Minehead Station volunteers who have manned the stall over the past 21 years gathered around a presentation cheque symbolising the total amount.

The purpose-built sales outlet was created to raise funds for the station’s restoration and maintenance and was the brainchild of the then secretary of the Friends of Minehead Station, the late David Perry, who joked at the time: “If we can take £10 a day we will be laughing.”

All of the money raised has gone into keeping Minehead Station looking as good as it does today, and a huge number of projects have been undertaken by the Friends over the years.

Martyn Snell, chairman of the Friends, said: “Little did we realise the huge financial tap which David Perry was opening at the time. He would be so proud to have seen what has been achieved in and around the station since Readers Halt first started in business.

“Without that first move and the donations of stock, plus the hard work of the volunteer staff, the money raised would not have come into our coffers.

“I am so grateful to everyone who has donated their unwanted items and time to us in any way to help keep the WSR station at Minehead looking spic and span.”

Full story in tomorrow’s Free Press (August 16).