To the Congregational Hall on Saturday morning to refresh the mind and body with the goodness of the earth. You can tell I’ve been reading far too much Ben Goldacre of late, can’t you?
But there was no bad science to my logic of lapping up the local fruit ‘n veg. A late, late finish with the lovely @HiddenDingbat’s the night / morning previous, and my eyelids were telling me that organic, rather than alcoholic, was the order of the day.
This was the first spring Farmer’s market for @AnnaJCowen and I since the Great Escape. With enough blue in the sky to make a sailor a pair of underpants (steady,) we skipped down the High Street with an extra kick in our step.
That will be the double JD and coke before breakfast kicking in then.
There is something really rather special about the Wivenhoe Farmer’s Market come this time of the year. The stalls start to slowly, slowly head to the great outdoors (um, the Congregational Hall car park) and the event becomes even more social.
We started off with a decent chat with a herbs chap, who also supplied us with a rhubarb plant that is now taking up the prime growing location in the back garden. With rhubarb being the Celery of the Gods, we’ve high hopes for some crumble over the coming month.
Our herb man then set about the task of sourcing us something a little more exotic. No need to call in the crime squad - we’re simply after a local lemon tree that can make the most of those glorious Wivenhoe rays.
Inside the Congregational Hall and Tony’s Fish was all the fancy for the early morning trade. Fished in local waters, we came close to treating that special little girl in our life with a wet haddock across her little inquisitive nose.
A bit of basic fruit and veg shopping filled the bags, and then we were back outside for a catch up with the ace Transition Town Wivenhoe folk. Promoting sustainability within the town is what it is all about for TTW. For the Farmer’s Market and the group has come up with the great idea of a local seed swap.
I was also fascinated with the Wivenhoe Food Map of free fruit and nuts. Locals are encouraged to pinpoint sources of free food, such as blackberries, rosehips and various nuts. It was a shame to see a now empty and barren stretch heading out towards Alresford Creek.
Many thanks, as ever, to the charming Bob for taking the time to explain and update recent TTW activities.
The shift outdoors continues with TTW over the coming months. The regular Sunday gardening sessions outside the Station Master’s House have commenced once again. Volunteers are of course always welcome.
And so another month, another bumper crop. The next Wivenhoe Farmer’s Market takes place on Saturday 16th April - the fifth anniversary of the event within Wivenhoe. To rent a stall call 01206 367776. For further info or to volunteer help, call 01206 826226.
Slightly off the pace with this one, but blimey - it’s only The Wivenhoe Society Newsletter, Winter 2011.
Hurrah!
You wait a whole month for one esteemed local publication packed full of intrigue and developments, and then along come three all at once. The Chronicle, the Town Council Newsletter and now WivSoc.
What I like about Wivenhoe and the #hyperlocal media within is that there is broadly a consensus. Sure, issues such as the clogged up Clingoe Hill are going to divide (or even unite) but The Chronicle, the Town Council and WivSoc are concerned with the same positive agenda, and offering similar pragmatic solutions.
But first of all - how about a picture showing some men waving handkerchiefs and skipping around Black Buoy Hill?
Blimey.
The front pic for WivSoc this Winter features the wonderful Boxing Day Morris Men of Colchester, entertaining the boozers of the Black Buoy. Or maybe it was the other way round?
Moving on, and the Message from the Chair - the good Tom Roberts - reads as a call to arms for more local support of WivSoc:
“Our committee is much smaller than it should be. In short, we need more of our large membership to volunteer to help run the Society or it will cease to function.”
A good starting point would be to attend the AGM at The Nottage on 30th March. Get a feel for the fine work being undertaken, and then think about what you have to offer Wivenhoe, rather than what Wivenhoe can offer you as some great world leader no doubt once said.
The Chair’s introduction piece then addresses planning. The proposal to build one 3-bedroom, three 4-bedroom and four 5-bedroom houses at Ten Acres takes on a rational approach. The WivSoc view is one of pragmatism, recognising:
“Your average developer would have applied for - and probably got - permission to build a far greater number of homes on the site, but this plan is very sensitive to the site and minimises the loss of trees.”
A “great disappointment” is observed at the plan to build nine houses on the patch of grass in front of the undertakers (cripes) on Rectory Road, with the “bland design” being noted.
Tellingly (and wisely) the Chair concludes:
“It is odd that we can increase the population fourfold, with all that implies in vastly increased council tax revenue, yet when it is finally acknowledged that a new health centre is needed, the funding is not there to buy residential land for it, so it has to go on agricultural land on the edge of the town!”
Jane Black that adds her considerable experience in where and how to comment upon planning applications within Wivenhoe. Your first port of call should be over here… Similar advice was recently given in the Town Council Newsletter.
The excellent Annual Wine Tasting evening, held at the Congregational Hall last November, is then given a write up by the good Dave Harrison. Memories are slightly hazy; there’s logic in documenting your life online, dontcha know…
The WivSoc Post-Christmas Party also gets a short piece (perhaps *too* small, given the grand nature of the evening at the Loveless Hall.) Many thanks to Jean Coverley for the excellent food, as well as showing good editorial judgement in not publishing a picture of some dodgy bloke wearing a pair of braces.
The Uni_of_EssexKnowledge Gateway is then given over to some background reading, with the piece being written before the rather ‘lively’ local meeting down at The Nottage. I hear a whisper that the meeting has made the front page of the next issue of Wivenhoe News (um, blessed by local media, aren’t we?)
Councillor Robert Needham has penned a moving piece all about Wivenhoe’s Men of Trafalgar. This is a wonderful piece of local research, and is certainly worthy of a read [happy to re-publish online, if an electronic copy comes my way...]
Looking Forward to Spring Flowers is all about, um, looking forward to spring flowers. Hurrah! Aren’t we all?
“Wivenhoe in Bloom have successfully planted over 3,000 crocuses in the greensward on either side of Rosabelle Avenue and by the bus stop on the High Street, as well as 500 scilla in the boats outside the William Loveless Hall, on the corner of De Vere Lane and other sites in the village.”
Cripes.
Better luck with the budding than I have had with my 70 dodgy daffodil bulbs from B & Q.
The ace Off the Rails writes a piece on p.8, all about the Vintage Mobile Cinema Bus at the station on 6th February. If you’re reading this whilst the online ink is still fresh, then you may just make the cinematic spectacular.
The Parish Paths Partnership updates with news of recent work, including finance woes from both local and national government, and speculation that this project would be just perfect for the #bigsociety.
We’ve just past the fifty-membership mark. If you sign up over here, then I promise to think seriously about taking part in the Boxing Day Morris Dancing come next Christmas.
The good folk of Transition Town Wivenhoe report back from the excellent work currently in progress to obtain a twenty-five year lease for the Station Master’s House from Network Rail. The Town Council puts in a call for ideas to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and then that lot over at the Brightlingsea Society also get a big up.
And finally…
Save the most important until last: Membership of the Wivenhoe Society is £8 for a family or couple (love the idea of encouraging courting…) or £5 for a single person. Reduced rates of £6 and £3 for those without an income.
It’s not all about membership and joining however. This is just the first step to having an active role in the way local issues are handled around Wivenhoe. The social scene is rather wonderful as well.
Disclaimer: I am a member of the Wivenhoe Society, although not a committee member. All views expressed within this blog post are mine alone, and not that of the committee, or the Society in general.
No surprises to hear confirmation that Wivenhoe Police Station is to close sometime before March. The Gazette is reporting that the Tiptree experiment of moving the local officers into the fire station was deemed a success, and is now to be rolled out in Wivenhoe, Brightlingsea and West Mersea.
No surprises either that potential money saving is behind the closure of the police stations:
Chief Supt Alison Newcomb, Eastern Division Commander, said: “We need to make extensive savings and are going to do that in a way which means we can maintain the service.”
This doesn’t mean that Wivenhoe will be losing our dedicated officers in Sgt Lou Middleton, PC Mick Bond and PSCO Louise Neville. No confirmation as yet, but the new location for the Wivenhoe team is “thought” to be uptown towards the Fire Station.
The Gazette also raises the suggestion that Wivenhoe Library may take on a new use, with a possible police surgery being held there. With cuts being implemented across most public services, the library would do well to re-invent itself and find an added purpose.
As for the future of the Wivenhoe police station? This probably lies somewhere related to the future of the empty three police houses around the back. With many folk in the town often expressing that Wivenhoe has outgrown the limited space of the William Loveless Hall, the closure provides the perfect opportunity for the Town Council to purchase some extra land.
Ah - but where to find the money? It’s all a bit of a chicken and egg situation, no doubt mirrored throughout Essex with many public buildings about to be laid dormant over the coming months.
Did someone mentions *shhh* @asset_transfer and the The Place Station? The Station Master’s House has already been uploaded as a project asking for support. Finding uses for these public spaces looks like becoming something of a trend as the cuts continue to hit communities.
Midweek downtown, and so it must be a Committee Meeting with the good folk of the Wivenhoe Society. Except I’m not a committee member. No worries - a very kind invite to come along as an interested observer, and there I was, sitting around the top table at The Nottage and noting how the inner workings of WivSoc rotate.
Truth be told and there wasn’t a great deal of gossip. Actually, there wasn’t any gossip - just a small (ish) but passionate committee of locals, talking through current developments within the town, and trying to come up with solutions or suggestions.
Once again I found myself at the heart of the #bigsociety; once again those involved were thankfully operating apolitically, and all for the love of the community in which they live. The #bigsociety has always been around us. It’s such a shame that those who understand it the least have now hijacked this concept of community.
But anyway - The Nottage on a Wednesday night.
Each time I enter the hallowed walls of the Nottage and I have nothing but complete homage. This is a building where the history doesn’t just drip off the walls - it comes out and greets you, reminding you of the proud history of shipbuilding within Wivenhoe.
The WivSoc Committee took up position on the top table, accompanied by the constant (but reassuring) bang bang of the boat building down below. Come eight in the evening and the industrial back beats were joined by the sweet sound of the Wednesday evening bell ringers practise session.
Only in Wivenhoe…
It was rather wonderful to be invited to observe how WivSoc operates. Essentially this is an organisation that at the heart of its constitution has the aim to keep a watchful and supportive eye over the town.
We started off with some feedback from Councillor Needham, coming out of the Wivenhoe Town Council meeting that took place the previous Monday. I’m finding that something of a familiar theme is the opening / closing of Queens Road, which once was an issue that our good Councillor friends have been thinking about much of late.
Cllr Needham reported back on a recent site visit with the developers for Cook’s Shipyard. Although traffic was encountered around East Street and Alma Street, the conclusion from WTC, and the developers, is that there is no scope to re-open Queens Road.
Moving swiftly on…
The feedback from Cllr Needham also included various cost saving measures, as no doubt faced by local councils throughout the land. The current one-to-one escort of SEN pupils within Wivenhoe en route to school is looking at being reduced. Colchester Borough Council is also carrying out an audit of the sums involved in keeping the Philip Road Centre a going concern.
Potholes meanwhile are something of a political hot potato. Wivenhoe seems to fare no better, or no worse, than most areas following the December freeze. Station Road was identified as being something of a problem area. There is also a part of Park Road where potholes now appear to be the norm. Essex County Council is currently putting together a strategy to repair these.
The much talked about dedicated cycleway to the University has also been keeping our good councillors busy of late. This has now become a competitive process, with the budget to put this in place continuing to head northwards - £600k is the latest figure, with the bulk of the bill arising from compensation from the farmer over the land, as well as re-routing utility services.
The budget suggestion is to simply upgrade the public footpath across the field that currently takes you towards the University. By pure coincidence, @AnnaJCowen and I walked across this at the weekend. We were puffing and panting midway through the field. I don’t think my Moulton would cope with the steep incline.
CBC Cllr Steve Ford has been working to help the elderly folk at Britannia Court that have recently had heating problems. A positive outcome appears to have been reached, with CBC agreeing to offer help with the payment of bills.
The final update from Cllr Needham to WivSoc centred on the Speed Catch training sessions. This is an initiative that is being sponsored by WTC, to try and keep Wivenhoe a safe place for all to commute within. Elmstead Road has been identified as one location. WTC is currently on the look out for other areas that might benefit.
Something of a busy night for Cllr Needham, who then had to disappear for further local civic meetings. Someone should make that man the Mayor one day, donctha know…
WivSoc continued apace, with a very healthy Treasurer’s report. The balance books are looking so good, that a rather generous donation to Wivenhoe in Bloom is being considered. I felt it not appropriate to ask for a grant to help re-seed by back lawn.
Updates from our fine Secretary followed. WivSoc has heard from our friends up the road at The University, trying to once again generate local interest and participation in the Knowledge Gateway meeting scheduled to take place on Friday 28th, 7pm at The Nottage.
Yep - that’s right: just as the weekend has kicked in, and with a bottle of bolly on the go and Eastenders soon to start, the University couldn’t have chosen a more inconsiderate time to tell Wivenhoe folk of how the planned feeder route into Clinghoe Hill is going to cause even further congestion.
Not quite in Knowledge Gateway territory, but the clearing of Ferry Marsh is an issue that WivSoc has also been busy corresponding with various organisations. Concern was raised that the Environment Agency has made something of a mess of Ferry Marsh with the recent structural work to the sea wall.
WivSoc has been reassured by the Agency that this is only the first part of the planned work. Now that the landscape has been cleared, the plan if for the walkway to be resurfaced, and for the natural habitat to be encouraged to grow once again.
And relax…
But not for long - here comes Planning.
Oh Lordy.
Surprise was raised that nothing official has surfaced as yet regarding the proposed re-development of Rowhedge Wharf. One to keep a friendly local eye out for. Alterations are also apparently in place for the Royal British Legion. Few details are available, but WivSoc was broadly supportive of any help that the building needed.
And finally we came to the Station Master’s House, and the input from the highly energetic Transition Town Wivenhoe. Once again, the view from WivSoc was one of support and enthusiasm. The momentum of the group was recognised as one that can only be good for the town. Plans were made to partner TTW, and to encourage the members to participate in WivSoc’s Open Gardens event.
And that was about your lot. As an interested (and invited) observer, I thought it only good etiquette to observe how booze then follows these meetings along the Quay at the British Legion.
WivSoc is an ever-evolving organisation, and can only really reflect the views of those in the community that decide to join and participate. If you have any issues or suggestions as to how to make Wivenhoe an even better place to live or work, then joining WivSoc has to be the way ahead.
To the William Loveless Hall on Saturday evening for the [insert calendar reference frame for this week...]
Yep, these blog posts seem to write themselves of late, with Mr Loveless’ grand old hall (steady) along the High Street in Wivenhoe seemingly becoming my cultural hub for all things ACE.
Saturday night was no exception. If it’s the first week in the January, then the diary much surly read: The Wivenhoe Society Annual Post-Christmas Party.
Cripes.
Long may it continue, with our first Post-Christmas-ing with the Wiv Soc lot already shaping up as a Wivenhoe social highlight of the year. What I simply love about these events is the opportunity to actually sit down and speak with the faces that you see around the town. Everyone has a story to tell, and Saturday evening at the Loveless was no exception.
But first, about that dress code.
Oh Lordy.
There wasn’t any dress code, as such - this is Wivenhoe, dahhhling. It still didn’t stop the dramafashion Queen, um, @AnnaJCowen from spending half the afternoon being fitted out for her best party frock. The girl scrubbed up well, albeit a bit of a tight squeeze.
I went for the suited and booted look, but without the suit, if you see what I mean. Never mix your jacket and jeans, I was once instructed by a fine chap. But 501′s with a blue jacket gave me the 50 / 50 option of playing the percentage stake in avoiding a fashion faux pas. I still looked as though I had just burned up the Wivenhoe Trail on my MTB.
With initial concerns that we may lower the average age of Wiv Soc by three score years, our fears were soon forgotten when we realised that we might even by the oldest swingers (steady) in town. Yep, Wiv Soc may be a slightly more mature crowd, but there was still space at the Loveless Hall for some local bright young things.
With tables allocated, we nervously shifted along to table number six. No worries - a brief smile and a twirl from the Good Lady Wife and we were in business. Table six was the party table, with our charming dining (and drinking) companions welcoming the Lady and the Tramp.
I really should listen to rockabilly a lot more often. But maybe not at the same time as dining. All that jit jiving however proved to be the perfect dining companion as aperitifs were served.
Ah yes - about the Wiv Soc menu: this was not yer basic Co-op mix ‘n match basket of delights. A banquet had been lovingly prepared that was worthy of the finest company within Wivenhoe. Table six was called up to the buffet, and one of my fellow dining companions even punched the air.
YES!!!!
Geddin there.
Despite a well-attended event, there was even scope for seconds. I had to hold back @AnnaJCowen as she suggested that some quiche could quite easily fit into her handbag. I’m not sure what surprised me the most - the bare faced cheek of the lady, or the fact that she actually managed to find a handbag.
The back room in the Loveless doubled up as an incredibly cheap bar. Only forty-eight hours previous and I was plotting in the very same room the future of the Station Master’s House with the lovely TTW folk. All talk of sustainability somehow managed to transfer to the wine conversation. I think we’re in safe hands on both fronts.
And then cometh the hour, cometh the Dad Dancing. It was a good sign that as soon as the excellent Judith Charmers [it's an Essex thing] struck up the opening chords for Weather With You, and half the Hall took to the dance floor.
We danced a lot. And laughed a lot, both at ourselves and the complete lifestyle transformation that twelve months earlier had seen @AnnaJCowen and I fitting in rather badly in trying to be the coolest kids in town back down in deepest South London.
The music was rather ace, and it took something of a local stand off to allow Judith Chalmers to actually leave the stage shortly after midnight and lights on time.
And so fantastic food, marvelous music and a bit of self-loathing with a smile. Our memories of the evening however will be of the warmth of the Wivenhoe Society in welcoming a couple of wardrobe challenged new faces into the community.
Wiv Soc itself is incredibly active within Wivenhoe. Although the party was ace, much of the work is of a campaigning nature, highlighting local issues and trying to improve the town and it’s profile.
I think we will get on just fine.
Many, many thanks to Jean, Pat and the rest of the Wivenhoe Society team for such a wonderful evening. The food preparation alone was stunning, with fine company on the evening to match.
What does it take to inspire forty or so Wivenhoe locals out to the Loveless Hall on a rather dark and damp Thursday evening to sit around in a circle and introduce themselves to one another?
This question could work on oh so many fronts, but the extra seats needed to accommodate the interested individuals was all the work of Transition Town Wivenhoe.
An informal meeting had been called to talk about the future of the Station Master’s House. This was a public meeting, but the details were deliberately only circulated amongst supporters of the Transition group. Sticking with the sustainability ethos of the group, the plan is for the project to now spread out into the wider community.
But first a little background…
Jo Wheatley opened the series of open space workshops with an enthusiasm that would set the agenda for the following two hours. After a successful summer of taking control of the Station Master’s Garden and growing free fruit ‘n veg for commuters, TTW now has ambitious plans for the empty Station Master’s House.
The ownership of this building remains with Network Rail. Working in partnership with NXEA and Off the Rails, the proposal is for a twenty-five year lease for TTW, and then to open up the space as a local hub that will encourage sustainability within the community.
An initial meeting with Network Rail was held in November. Feedback was positive, with Network Rail recognising that bringing the building back to life can only help to improve public safety.
Having lain empty for two years, there is superficial water damage within. This can easily be fixed. The building has a Grade II listed status and so there is also a heritage angle to consider.
And so on to the Loveless Hall Thursday night open space sessions.
Ah yes - a little more about this process for dialogue…
Open space is a system of organising and aiding democratic local dialogue. The members of the meeting set the agenda, formulate some questions to be answered and then break out into informal discussion groups, before feeding back at the end. Such a transparent and co-operative form of working was perfect for this particular project.
It was encouraging to see some veryfamiliar Wivenhoe faces, working alongside other locals who genuinely want to make the Station Master’s House a central hub within the town.
Our central question was:
“How can the Station Master’s House make Wivenhoe a more sustainable community?”
Each group member was then given a blank sheet of paper in which to come up with a series of questions to explore further. Working together, we then organised these sub-questions into five broad categories, covering the following points:
1. Community involvement
2. Practical organisation
3. Funding
4. Learning and education
5. Sustainability
And then it was pretty much open space, open house. Five discussion tables were set up, with members encouraged to circulate around the room and offer further ideas. What was evident at this early stage is that Wivenhoe has a tremendous knowledge and skills base to drawn upon, and that there is a definite sense of community. These two elements alone bode well for the future of the building.
I spent most of my time in the community involvement discussion. We found it a challenge to decide how to engage the community, when we weren’t entirely sure as yet what we wanted to engage the community with.
Essentially we were talking about engagement, and how to spread the message. It was agreed that online dialogue has worked incredibly well to draw out forty or so locals to the initial meeting, and this should be built upon.
But then there’s the very relevant question of how to involve Wivenhoe locals who may not be online. This soon became a chicken and egg equation, with plans for the Station Master’s House to include online support.
Our group was enthusiastic about a large scale open source meeting within the town, to try and find a sense of direction. If forty people could come up with ideas and support for five broad category areas, imagine what 400 people might be able to achieve. We also liked the idea of an annual Station Master’s House celebration day to raise awareness of the project.
I then flirted (ooh, get you) with the other discussions, observing the rule of open space that if you have nothing to contribute, then move on.
@asset_transfer is probably the country’s leading expert on opening up spaces for community use, and it is by complete coincidence, and to the immense benefit of Wivenhoe that Anne Marie lives in our community. No surprises that the practical organisation session had an incredibly healthy outlook by the end of the evening.
Funding touched upon different grants that may be available, as well as renting out the space for local groups. The learning and education debate addressed what skills we have to offer in Wivenhoe, and how these can be passed on.
This was the perfect collision of the old meets the new. Many folk have traditional skills, which need to be either passed on, or even to be re-discovered. Add to this the burgeoning online and digital awareness in the town (seriously) and you have a new network in which to transmit old skills. Both sides can learn a lot from one another.
But perhaps the most fascinating conversations of the evening came out of the more holistic theme of sustainability. This became a far wider debate about what it means to be sustainable within Wivenhoe, and at what level do you actually notice any results.
A very simple, but practical idea was to use some of the space in the Station Master’s House as a charity shop. This is something that Wivenhoe lacks, with trips into Colchester to offload any unwanted clothes. Keeping it hyperlocal and raising funds has to be an idea to explore further.
And so two hours after a group of individuals rather nervously sat around in a circle in the Loveless Hall, we concluded with a co-operative group that had started to come up with a very real plan for the future of the Station Master’s House.
It is the next stage that will be even more challenging. Assuming that negotiations with Network Rail are positive, some form of social enterprise needs to be created to help steer the project.
The danger here of course is that a committee style operation somehow loses the bottom up enthusiasm that was evident at the Loveless Hall on Thursday evening.
As I wandered down to The Station (rather appropriately) to collect my thoughts and to, um, booze, I couldn’t but help keep on coming back to what still remains my all time favourite tweet:
“If you want to get something done set up network, slow it down, set up an organisation.”
Many thanks to TTW for such an illuminating evening. Much of the workshops were filmed, and will no doubt surface online in the coming weeks. Cheers to Bob for agreeing to the @audioboo below.
Here’s a rather decent project to look forward to in the New Year - the fine folk at Transition Town Wivenhoe have ambitious plans to use the empty space of the Station Master’s House as a community hub.
TTW has been working successfully around the station throughout the year, taking the initiative to tend to the Station Master’s garden, and then offering free veg to surprised commuters.
This next step at the station proposes to take the project to the next level, allowing the house to become a community owned facility, and to offer training and activities to suit local needs:
“Since developing the station house garden with Off the Rails this year, TTW has submitted a proposal to National Express and Network Rail outlining an idea to create a community hub under the Community Rail Partnership Stations Initiatives Scheme. The station house has been empty for two years.
Our initial idea is to set up a social enterprise to offer skills and training courses and activities related to building local resilience, e.g. food growing, crafts skills, renewable energy, energy advice, cycling related activities such as cycle training and bike trailer hire, local skills exchange and share schemes. Also to make hirable space including desk space with internet available to others.
We met with National Express in November and they have offered to set up a meeting early in the New Year with Network Rail in late January when we can present our ideas to them. In the meantime we have secured a [significant] grant from Community Builders to support the development of the necessary skills, training and new organisational structures/business planning involved.
We believe this is a fantastic opportunity to rejuvenate a heritage building and create a buzz in Wivenhoe whilst at the same time giving space to expand our activities and have a permanent base to help create sustainable change.
We now need folk who might get involved in shaping the ideas and developing the project. Interested TTW supporters and friends should come and find out more on Thursday January 6th at 7pm, William Loveless Hall.”
How wonderful. There is already a strong ethos within Wivenhoe of utilising empty space for public use. *cough* @asset_transfer has a hyperlocal Wivenhoe base. TTW would do well to take on the advice and skills that are on offer here.
So yeah - the Loveless Hall on the 6th is the location if you want to help shape this hub. From small projects, grand ideas grow. Who knows - from the Station Master’s House to… the old Engine Shed?
Michael: Thanks for flagging this one up, Jason. I caught it on the day before it closed on the strength of your pictures and recommendation. A brilliant exhibition which captured much of what...
