Group History

On Friday 8th April 1994, the founding members of the Road to Recovery Group opened the doors of The Prysten House to host their first meeting. The Prysten House (pictured above) was and still is fondly talked about by our group members. It is the oldest building in Plymouth and will always have a place deep the heart of every “Roadie”. To put things in a little perspective, it was built in 1490, a year before Henry VIII was born and two years before Columbus discovered America. It was like meeting in a museum, a very cold one! At a Group Conscience meeting six months later we decided to meet twice a week and become a multi meeting group; why wait until Friday when you can do it again on Sunday! In the November of 1996 our third meeting (Tuesday).

The group moved to its home at St Matthias Church hall (pictured below) in the January of 1997. This brought to an end the famous milkshakes after the meeting in McDonalds and hailed in a new era of Coffee after the meeting in Goodbodys. On St Valentines day 2003 due to the size of the group we moved from the lower hall in St Matthias to the much larger upper hall (pictured above). This is the hall which currently holds our Friday night Open meeting. Like our original venue it became a special place for many of us . St Matthias church was built about 1886, it remained untouched during the blitz of the second world war, because it became a landmark for enemy bombers.

since October 2022 on a Friday the group has met at its current home of Tothill Community Ctr, St Jude’s (below). The hall looks and feels like a large World War Two aeroplane hanger. As we approach the groups 30th anniversary it feels like the set up of the Friday meeting is finally what it always should have been.