To add a little cheer during the coronavirus outbreak here are a few photos of the beds and tubs in the village that were planted by the Village Trust volunteers, in bloom with spring bulbs and flowers …
Archive for the ‘Conservation area’ Category
Spring blooms
April 3, 2020Winter bulbs & polyanthus
October 27, 2019On Saturday morning volunteers from the Village Trust planted up over 50 tubs with tulips, daffodils, crocus and grape hyacinth bulbs together with polyanthus plants.
Thank you to our local councillors and the Project Genesis Trust for providing the funding.
The photos show just a few of the volunteers getting wet!
Grants for Blooming
May 26, 2019At the AGM a cheque was presented by John O’Connor, Chairman of the Project Genesis Trust, to Sue Shaw, Secretary of the Trust’s Blooming Shotley Bridge group. The funding was made available from the Project Genesis Trust Small Grants Fund.
A similar amount has also been granted from County Councillor Robinson’s Neighbourhood Budget.
Both grants will now enable the Trust to replant the tubs and planters, throughout the conservation area, with summer and winter bedding this year.
The Triangle
March 8, 2019Half a dozen Trust members spent a couple of hours this morning collecting debris, moss and leaves from the Triangle in the centre of the village. The block paving around the history board has been cleared of moss and weeds. Eighteen bags of compostable materials were removed, for the council to collect.
Thank you to the volunteers and to Isabella’s who provided complimentary coffees on completion.
The council intend cleaning the moss from the tarmac areas and repainting the fencing and furniture. Two new seats are also to be provided with the last of the S106 money from the Storey Homes development on the former hospital site.
Purple Croci
February 23, 2019The Purple4Polio croci are flowering a month earlier this year, because of the mild weather. These are the 5000 bulbs planted in 2017 by the Village Trust provided by Consett Rotary Club. Another 5000 more bulbs were planted last November but these are only just starting to peep through.
The purple crocus is a symbol of Rotary’s worldwide campaign to eradicate polio, with its colour representing the purple dye used to mark the finger of a child to indicate they have received their life saving oral polio vaccine.
More information can be found on the Rotary website
Purple4Polio 2
November 2, 2018Consett Rotary Club has given the Trust another 5000 crocus bulbs, to plant in the village.
They have been planted further along the grass verge in front of Riverside, around the Pant and in the verge at Snows Green.
Ten members of the Trust and members of Consett Rotary, who provided the bulbs, volunteered for a couple of hours.
The purple crocus is a symbol of Rotary’s worldwide campaign to eradicate polio, with its colour representing the purple dye used to mark the finger of a child to indicate they have received their life saving oral polio vaccine.
More information can be found on the Rotary website.
Summer bedding planted
June 9, 2018This morning the Trust’s volunteers planted the summer bedding in tubs and planters, within the conservation area. Thank you to those that helped and Beveridge’s for supplying and delivering the plants.
We are trying out a more experimental mixture of plants this summer, in the hope of adding more variety. We hope you like the difference.
Purple4Polio
November 4, 2017The Trust has been given 5000 crocus bulbs by Consett Rotary Club, to plant in the village.
It was decided to plant them along the grass verge opposite Rumi’s, in front of the daffodil bulbs which the Trust planted a few years ago.
Over half were planted yesterday by seven volunteers from the Trust and another working party has been arranged for next Friday to finish the job.
The Rotary’s Purple4Polio initiative in 2016 was a huge success with nearly 7 million purple corms being planted across Great Britain and Ireland resulting in a carpet of purple in communities during spring 2017. This year, Rotary is aiming to go even further and plant 10 million purple crocus corms!
The purple crocus is a symbol of Rotary’s worldwide campaign to eradicate polio, with its colour representing the purple dye used to mark the finger of a child to indicate they have received their life saving oral polio vaccine.
More information can be found on the Rotary website.
Village centre tidy up
October 7, 2017Thank you to the 10 Trust members who helped remove litter, moss & weeds from the pavements and ‘triangle’ in the village centre yesterday morning. Everywhere looks much tidier now, after only a couple of hours work.
Working parties are being held on the first Friday morning of the month. Next month we are bulb planting, daffodils & croci along the main road.
Litter pick success
April 9, 2017On Saturday morning 15 members of the Trust, together with our local county councillors, picked up litter from the village centre and along the main roads radiating outwards. Thank you to all those who volunteered. The village looks a lot tidier now.
Unveiling of the ‘new’ Pant
May 12, 2016This lunchtime the replica of the Pant that originally stood at the corner of Front Street and Snows Green Road was “officially” unveiled by Durham County Council. Representatives from Storey Homes, Classic Masonry, Beamish Museum, the Stakeholder Group, the BBB&SB Partnership, Durham Police and the Village Trust were invited to the ceremony.
It was the culmination of over four years commitment by the Village Trust, working in partnership with the Shotley Bridge Stakeholder Group, local councillors and officers from Durham County Council to bring to fruition a range of environmental improvement projects in the centre of the Shotley Bridge Conservation Area:
- An enhanced lighting scheme
- New paving on Front Street
- New coping stones around the raised bed on Snows Green Road
- Two additional parking bays on Cutler’s Hall Road
- A new seating area
- A replica drinking fountain
- Demolition of a dilapidated bus shelter
- Two new metal & glass bus shelters
These projects were prioritised by the Stakeholder Group, supported by Local Councillors Stephen Robinson and Peter Oliver and paid for with Section 106 funding from the Storey Homes Housing Development on the hospital site, with a contribution from the Public Transport budget and help from the Benfieldside, Blackhill, Bridgehill & Shotley Bridge Partnership.
See also the press report in the Northern Echo.
Replica Pant
April 25, 2016Today a new replica pant was erected near the Crown & Crossed Swords PH, to commemorate the bringing of a piped water supply to the village 130 years ago, in 1886.
The original is at Beamish Museum, following its removal in the 1950s to allow for improvements to the junction of Front Street and Snows Green Road.
Funding for the replica has come via the Story Homes housing development near Shotley Bridge Hospital. It is part of the S106 project for ‘urban realm’ improvements in the village centre.
Durham County Council are organising an ‘unveiling’ event after lunch on Thursday 12 May, which will mark the completion of the project.
Spring Bedding in Bloom
April 15, 2016Daffodils and tulips planted by the Trust were in full bloom this week in the conservation area, giving a colourful display. The violas are flowering too, which will hopefully give colour until the Trust’s volunteers plant up the tubs with summer bedding at the end of May.
Raising funds for ‘Blooming’
November 14, 2015Blooming Shotley Bridge will be raising funds again at ‘The Snods’ Christmas Fair next Saturday 21st November, 10am – 4pm.
Our stall will have both ‘New’ and ‘Nearly New’ items, many suitable for Christmas presents, plus a Tombola and children’s ‘Lucky Dip’
All items have been donated by SBVT members and friends and proceeds will be used to buy bedding plants, bulbs and shrubs for Shotley Bridge conservation area.
‘Shotley Bridge’ pin badges will be on sale, at only £2 each.
Blooming report
October 25, 2015Over thirty members of the Trust attended the recent Open Meeting, at which a report was given about the Trust’s entry in Northumbria in Bloom this year.
Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in our bid for ‘Gold’, being just 4 marks [out of 200] short of attaining the top award in the competition, but we managed to achieve our highest score ever and another ‘Silver Gilt’, for the third consecutive year.
Disappointed that the extra improvements and volunteer effort this year had only resulted in achieving another ‘Silver Gilt’, it was announced that the ‘Blooming’ committee had decided not to enter the competition in 2016. It was emphasised, though, that the high standard of planting in the tubs, baskets, troughs and sustainable beds throughout the conservation area would be continued by volunteers next year, but without the extra work behind the scenes needed to impress judges. Hopefully the local businesses will continue with their own floral displays too, to keep Sholey Bridge ‘Blooming’.
The slideshow presentation given at the meeting was taken from the photographs in the Portfolio, which had been presented to the judges when they visited in July …
October Open Meeting
October 18, 2015The next Open Meeting of the Village Trust is to be held on Tuesday evening 20th October. There will be a slide show presentation about the Trust’s entry in Northumbria in Bloom. Everyone is welcome.
Winter bedding for Spring flowers
October 18, 2015Daffodils, tulips and violas were planted in the tubs on Saturday morning, in readiness for a good show of colour throughout the conservation area next Spring.
Thank you to all the volunteers who have helped to organise the event or planted the tubs.
Judging complete
July 20, 2015This morning, judges from Northumbria in Bloom walked around the conservation area with volunteers from Blooming Shotley Bridge.
They seemed impressed with the floral decorations, sustainable planting, heritage initiatives and wildlife areas. The clean streets, lack of litter and dog fouling was also admired. Thanks to all the volunteers, residents, businesses, the Junior School and County Council for their efforts in putting on a good show.
Competition results will not be known until September.
Chester-le-Street visitors
July 12, 2015Yesterday a group of visitors from the Chester-le-Street & District Area Action Partnership were given a tour of the village centre. Its Improved Environment Task Group came to find out what the Shotley Bridge Village Trust had achieved for our village and how it had happened.
Tubs planted
June 7, 2015Sixteen Trust volunteers helped on Saturday morning to make a start on planting 44 tubs with summer bedding and 6 with sustainable perennials. Two new double tiered oak barrel planters have been purchased with a grant from local councillors, which have also been filled with colourful geraniums, surfinia [petunia] and lobelia.
The Council will be planting the Trust’s barrier baskets which volunteers will continue to maintain.
More plants have also been donated and purchased for the sustainable beds, which the Trust plants and maintains, on behalf of the Council.
