A dozen volunteers from the Village Trust scoured the conservation area for litter this morning and managed to find plenty to collect. Though there appeared to be less litter than last year.


This picture has been provided by a subscriber who want know if anyone had information about the people in the photo, which was taken during the 1906/7 season. The location looks to be the recreation field [now Riverside housing estate] behind the Crown & Crossed Swords at the bottom of Church Bank.
There will be a short Act of Remembrance in St. Cuthbert’s Church, Church Bank on Sunday 14th November.
A warm invitation to any to gather at 10.50am in church, with a two minute silence at 11am.
The regular Eucharist will move to the earlier time of 9.30am on Remembrance Sunday.
All are welcome.
There will also be an Act of Remembrance at 3pm at the Memorial Cottages on Front Street.
This year is also the Centenary of the Cottages, which were erected in memory of men from the neighbourhood who fell in the First World War.
The Shotley Bridge War Memorial Cottages Trust took it in hand to save the buildings and in 1992 the cottages were refurbished.
The County Durham CCG has proposed an updated clinical model for future services at Shotley Bridge Community Hospital.
A programme of virtual engagement sessions has now been arranged throughout March. You can find details of these and an update about the project on their website where there is also a video presentation from NHS staff about what is included in the plans.
Go to the online survey to comment on the proposals.
The County Durham CCG is planning the next round of public engagement on what services are to be provided at Shotley Bridge Hospital.
In order to arrange an appropriate number of sessions, they are trying to understand the levels of interest in each of the following service areas:
If you are interested in participating in an online discussion about any of these topics follow this link to sign up for the event and say which sessions you wish to attend. [before Thursday 11th February.]
They want to be able to make sure that participants are able to engage as fully as possible in the conversations in each of the sessions and therefore would hope to have groups that aren’t too large.
They will then get back in touch with you once they have confirmed the programme, which will likely take place throughout March.
Due to the Coronavirus outbreak it has been decided to cancel the litter pick arranged for 28 March. We may reorganise it for September if the situation improves.
There will be no Village Trust Open Meeting in March this year. The next meeting for members and residents will be on 19th May at 7.30pm in the Catholic Church Hall, after the AGM that evening.
The annual spring litter pick is being held on Saturday 28 March this year, in association with Litter Free Durham’s ‘Big Spring Clean’. Volunteers who can spare an hour or two are meeting at the car park next to the Golden Flower at 10am. We aim to tidy up the village centre and along the roads leading out from it. Litter pickers, gloves, hi-viz vests and sacks are provided.
The Big Spring Clean is LitterFree Durham’s annual campaign, operated and delivered by Durham County Council and Darlington Borough Council.
Both councils work in partnership with LitterFree Durham to plan and execute the campaign every year.
The aim of the campaign is to reduce the amount of litter in the county by engaging with as many members of the community as possible through litterpicking activities and education in schools accross the area.
The campaign was first launched in 2010 to further LitterFree Durham’s work on the Stop the Drop Campaign that had been promoted by the Campaign to Protect Rural England. Since then it has grown year on year by attracting new groups and by maintaining engagement with previous participants.
For the fifth year running, the Trust is taking part in the Heritage Open Days Festival, over the next two weekends.
Volunteers from the Trust’s Heritage Group will be showing visitors around some of the buildings and sites in the village where new ‘QR’ Plaques are being installed and explaining the history of each.
This 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.