New cafe built by Deeside company at North Clwyd Animal Rescue Centre officially opened

A new cafe at a North Wales pet refuge has been named Doris’s Bunker in honour of the tea-serving gran whose legacy funded the work.

Doris Davies served up thousands cups of tea in her career, including brewing up for spooks cracking the WWII Enigma code.

The 95-year-old’s grandson David officially opened Doris’s Bunker today, built by Deeside firm Rubicon Garden Rooms at North Clwyd Animal Rescue Centre at Trelogan, near Holywell.

Doris, an animal lover from Kinmel Bay, left more than £36,000 in her will for the Flintshire centre, to say thanks for the Irish terror and poodle she adopted from NCAR.

Doris also left donations to Rhyl lifeboat and her local church.

Very emotional opening of @NCARUK new cafe today – two Deeside companies were heavily involved with the project. https://t.co/RDThtv23KS pic.twitter.com/A1E4GnrOY1

— Deeside.com (@DeesideDotCom) February 21, 2017

David and his family travelled from Ludlow, Shropshire, to perform the opening ceremony, his twin brother Glynn was unable to attend the opening ceremony due to family commitments.

The identical twins only discovered three years ago that Doris had once worked at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, the central site for Britain’s codebreakers during World War II, who famously decrypted the German enigma machine.

HGV driver David, who has a rescue greyhound, said:

It’s amazing that in just a few months this cafe has been built, and it’s all thanks to our grandmother. She was a remarkable lady and it is fitting that her name should  be over the door.

I hope many more people will be able to enjoy a cup of tea here, thanks to Doris, whether they are a volunteer or a family thinking about giving a forever home to one of the many animals helped by NCAR.

Glynn, a firefighter who shares Doris’ love for pets, said:

It is perfect that our grandmother’s name should continue with this cafe – I am sure that she would have loved to have seen it. She did like a cup of tea!

She also worked in a cafe in Llangollen during her long and varied life, and must have served up thousands of cups of tea and coffee  to all sorts of people in her time.

When David and I first came to NCAR to hand over the cheque from our grandmother’s will, we were very impressed by the centre and the work it carries out to re-home dogs, cats and other pets. I hope the cafe will help the centre to continue with this excellent work.

When NCAR fundraising manager Nicky Owen found out Doris had worked in tea-rooms for most of her life, in Llangollen and also at Bletchley Park, she thought it would be fitting to use her legacy to create this much-needed cafe, and name it after her.

As well as a rest area for staff, volunteers and visitors, Doris’s Bunker will also be used for meetings with funders, volunteer training sessions and fund-raising events.

Official opening of North Clwyd Animal Rescue cafe , Doris’s Bunker built by Rubicon.
John Lyon from Rubicon with NCAR fund-raising manager Nicky Owens and David Davies.

NCAR supporter and local landscape gardener Lewis Price, installed decking for free, to create an outside seating area, while the signs for Doris’s Bunker were supplied, also free, by Art Graphic Sonics Signs of Deeside.

Rubicon Garden Rooms gave NCAR a sizable discount on the new 500 square foot cafe, company founder John Lyon said:

As an animal lover I was delighted to be working with Nicky and the team at NCAR on this project. The cafe replaced the very cramped break-out area for volunteers and staff.

This is the largest project we’ve worked on so far, and the first public space, as our garden rooms are usually for relaxing, home offices or extensions to provide annexes for dependant relatives.

NCAR needs to raise £1,000 a day to look after the hundreds of dogs, cats and rabbits in its care. More details at ncar.org.uk or 01745 560546.