Summer Newsletter 2025

It’s time for another update from the Street Pastors in Stratford-upon-Avon. Our faithful Street Pastors have been out on patrol every week, sometimes doing more patrols than originally scheduled to provide cover, a big thank you to them. Also our Prayer Pastors who consistently hold the Street Pastors and our town and community in their prayers.

We held our AGM in April and, as always, it was a lovely time to come together as a group, very often we can easily miss seeing each other if we are on different patrol nights. Ian and Tony started off the meeting demonstrating their wonderful talents on the guitar, mandolin and banjo before our chairman reminded us why we go out on a wet or cold or dark Friday evening:

The information I find most interesting are the numbers, what is the impact of our patrols? I’ll start with the figure everyone is most conscious of – lollipops! We gave out 2,301 lollipops over 615 hours of patrolling in 2023-24 which signifies quite a few chats to quite a few people. A large part of our role is to listen and we supported 122 vulnerable people, by listening and being present to them when on patrol. We supplied 52 drinks (some warm and some bottled water), 76 meals, 9 safety blankets, 56 items of warm clothes and 11 sleeping bags. Part of caring for our community also can be shown in numbers, we collected 107 glass bottles, 7 glasses, 256 cans and swept up 16 broken glasses/bottles. We helped 4 people care for their feet by giving them flip-flops and arranged 7 taxis. As always, it’s about conversations, and we discussed Street Pastors 127 times, heard 218 messages of support and only 2 negative responses to what we do.

Here are some examples of what the teams get up to in the hours spent on patrol:

• • Initially we made for the pedestrian entrance to the multi storey car park and there we found rucksacks and bedding stored ready to be picked up later. To signal our visit we dropped a couple of lollipops on the bedding.
  • We headed over the Bancroft where we found a glass bottle, broken on the floor in front of a bin, which we cleared up.
  • We met Pete¹ and someone with him called Paul¹. Pete¹ was very cheerful but both said they were hungry so we offered to get them a McD meal but warned them it would be some time as now McD’s in Bridge Street closed at 7pm it meant a long walk up to the Birmingham Road.
  • On our way towards Bancroft Gardens we spotted some card keys for the Crown Plaza. We decided to take them across to the hotel. When we arrived at reception the gentleman who had lost them was trying to get keys for his room. The receptionist and he were very grateful.
  • Walking up Sheep Street we met members of a ‘Hen Party.’ We gave out lollipops and SP-R asked the ‘Bride to be’ if he could pray with her for the Lord’s blessing on the wedding celebrations. She agreed.
  • We got to the Encore, we met a group of people who were of university age, and they were asking us about what we do and why do what we do. We had a good conversation with them and one of them said “You are amazing and the best people I have met”.
  • We also met a young man named Rich¹ who asked us how he could get information about housing in the town. We pointed him in the direction of Fred Winters and the council offices. He was very grateful.
  • After another circuit of the town we walked down Sheep Street and there were a number of youngsters in good spirits outside the Golden Bee. Lollipops were much in demand.
  • We checked out the Avon Lounge, it was very busy and noisy although the disco was about to finish. We had a long conversation with a local woman outside, she was complimentary about the work that we do and talked about the challenges facing youngsters today.
  • We stopped for coffee (with cream!) at Thespians. The one of only two diners seated in the restaurant was in St John’s Ambulance and knew of our work and offered to buy our coffees, but the restaurant staff said we were their guests.
  • We met two police officers on foot and chatted with them for a while. Their radio had been non-stop all evening. The officers asked if it was OK for them to get a photo for their social media. We agreed and then they asked a passer-by to take the photo.

• ¹ Note: Name changed to protect privacy.

Prayer Points:

• For the teams out on Friday evenings Caring, Listening and Helping
• For the Fred Winter centre and all who operate from there
• For the new councillors at Warwickshire County Council as they take up their new roles.

Social Media:

We are continuing our series of posts on what keeps our Prayer Pastors awake and praying late into the night. Please follow us and share our posts.

Prayer Pastors

Prayer is important to us, and our Prayer Pastors are a vital part of what we do. Prayer Pastors stay in contact with the Street Pastor team on patrol, respond to specific needs and situations that arise, pray for protection and divine appointments and see answers to their prayers. A Prayer Pastor is someone who is a Christian and is part of a local church; has a desire to make a difference through prayer in the city/town they live in; willing to invest in the lives of others; willing to undertake some training.
If you are interested in knowing more, contact our co-ordinator, Linda, by e-mail at stratforduponavon@streetpastors.org.uk.