Middlesbrough
Thorntree is a housing estate and council ward on the outskirts of Middlesbrough. Built in the late 1940s it was the first post-war estate in Middlesbrough.
In 2000, it was identified as the 3rd most deprived ward in England. The Index of Multiple Deprivation now measures smaller areas, the three areas of Thorntree rank 192nd, 205th and 378th most deprived (out of 34,412) in England.
The Christian Centre (then the Apostolic Church, Middlesbrough) moved to Thorntree in 1972. The Thorntree building now forms our church base and outreach centre.
We aim to be active locally, providing service and working with other community bodies. In late 2006, we moved the Sunday morning services to Middlesbrough Centre but continue to use Thorntree as our base and the centre for community work.
A number of prophetic words have guided us to focus our outreach on Children's work. In one particular word God told us to, "Start with the Children". Since moving the Sunday meetings to Middlesbrough it had been our aim to start something new from Children's outreach.
We have been partnering with Kidz Klub, Liverpool to run a new children's club since the spring of 2007. Kidz Klub has seen notable success with more than 90 children attending and over 180 home visits done each week. We also hope to build on our Thorntree youth-work in the coming years.
The church recently featured on the Channel 4 documentary, "The Secret Millionaire". Secret Millionaire Paul Williams spent ten days living in Thorntree and attended the church and church lunch club during his stay. His gift of £10,000 to the lunch club allowed us to a buy a minibus.
Thorntree Statistics
The 2001 census figures show that Thorntree has a high proportion of children compared to adults.
| Figures taken from the 2001 census. | |
| Male | 2,853 |
|---|---|
| Female | 3,227 |
| Total | 6,080 |
