History
In the early 1960’s, Rev. Desmond Bending & Jean Seagrim were both involved with several voluntary activities in the village.
The Darby & Joan Club, a social club for the elderly, met in what was then the Working Men’s Club. There was also an Old People’s Welfare Association and Jean started a Meals on Wheels service in 1962. Wishing to coordinate these activities, in 1966 they drew up a constitution and registered their activities as a charitable foundation under the name of the Pulborough & District Community Care Association.
Transport was a problem for those without a car. The village churches had a Good Neighbours Scheme and, through this, a car transport scheme was organised for Pulborough, during the 1970’s. This ran alongside the hospital car service operated by the Red Cross, which also covered adjacent villages. Eventually, these schemes amalgamated and became our Community Transport Scheme in about 1998.
Meanwhile, the PDCCA heard that a minibus scheme had been introduced in Selsey. A fundraising scheme quickly started, with many cakes being baked and sold, resulting, after 3 years, in the arrival of the Pulborough Minibus in 1976. Minibuses became so popular that very soon the West Sussex Community Minibus Association was formed. Responsibility for our minibus then passed to this new voluntary group.
In 1977 a weekly Lunch Club began and, 5 years later, a social afternoon was added, becoming our
Wednesday Club. For many years Jean Seagrim and some of her friends had an informal arrangement for visiting the housebound in Pulborough. In 1998 the Volunteer Visiting Scheme was set up to expand this work and to train the volunteers involved.
In the late 1970’s, Age Concern suggested a Day Centre for Pulborough, but it received little support at the time. Jean Seagrim then proposed a weekly “pop-in” for all ages and thus, in 1981, Pop into Pulborough (PiP) was born. At that time it was common for people to bring young children along to PiP and from this another scheme developed, to provide a holiday club for 5 – 11 year old children. This was so successful that it was taken over by the statutory bodies. In 2003 PiP began to host a once monthly meeting for anyone with visual impairment and this has proved very useful. In 2005 we started up a toenail cutting scheme providing subsidised podiatry services which was well subscribed to and also offered Tai Chi classes.
In the Millennium year we started the Millennium Society. We funded the Village Clock and we also launched the current thriving village market.
During the Covid pandemic all our services were put on hold, however we kept in touch with many of our service users through regular phone calls and mail correspondence.
Following the pandemic our key services of community transport and the lunch club resumed as soon as it was safe to do so. Unfortunately, the other services were unable to resume.
In the last 4 years PDCCA has been very busy with the launch of several new schemes included a
befriending scheme, a Pop-In for young mum’s and toddlers, a cooking class for primary school children and most recently we have assumed management of the Pulborough Pantry as well as updating our website and engaging a social media expert.
This year, 2026, we are celebrating the 60th anniversary of PDCCA.
Whatever you donate will make a difference to our community. Thank you in advance.