The Lunchoen Club: getting out for a hot meal, a game of bingo and a good chat

Over 50s at the Children’s Centre? Surely there’s been a mistake. Not so, explains the Head of Centre, Karen Camm. “Yes, we’re focussed on increasing children’s attainment and getting parents trained and back into work so we’re essentially a hub of services for children and families. And, as such, we’re an intergenerational resource: everyone uses the library, the café, it all mingles together.”

Karen sees the benefit of getting not just mums and tots, but the whole family using the centre. “It has a ripple effect,” she says, “grandparents coming for one event might pick up information about another and pass it on. The Luncheon Club is very much an add-on for our overall ‘think family’ strategy”.

Led by the voluntary group 4CT, the Tuesday Luncheon Club has been going for longer than any of its current members can remember. Clayton resident Sandra Webb has been a volunteer since 1994: “It used to be run by Clayton Community Association [a forerunner to 4CT],” she recalls, “who had their base in an old community centre in Clayton Park and before that in an old butchers shop on Ashton Old Road.”

Today the eight or so regular members are finishing off their steak pie dinner before having a few games of bingo with Sandra calling out the numbers. “Oh yes, they pay for their own dinner and make a small contribution towards the bingo prizes and any trips out we can afford,” she says.

When there’s enough in the ‘kitty’ the group will hire a ‘charabanc’ and enjoy a day trip to the coast. Last time it was a meal out at a Blackpool hotel followed by entertainment and no doubt a sing-along on the way home. “We just go out and have a good time, don’t we?” says Sandra to the bingo players.

A hot meal, a few games of bingo and a good chat. For many of the Luncheon Club this is a social lifeline. “If they didn’t come here,” says Sandra, “they wouldn’t go anywhere.”

The Luncheon Club meets on Tuesdays from 11-2.30. New members are always welcome. Drop in or call 219 6177 for more details.

Cornflakes spill out of a paddling pool; red paint is splattered with rollers and toothbrushes; pasta is shovelled out of a plastic tub with wooden spoons. It sounds like a parent’s worst nightmare but this is the weekly Wonderful World of Play at Clayton Sure Start Children’s Centre and the kids love it.

“For the children it’s all about getting messy, interacting with others and learning through play,” explains Amanda Shore, the Children’s Centre Teacher. “For the adults it’s an opportunity to meet other parents and get informal advice from half a dozen health-related agencies and for us it’s a chance to demonstrate how children can learn from play without expensive toys.”

Kayleigh Smith and her 19 month-old son, Cole have travelled this morning from Ancoats. “Yes, we have to get a bus to be here but it’s worth the effort because he enjoys being with other children and getting messy. He doesn’t get much chance of that at home.”

“I’ve put our pans in a low cupboard in our kitchen,” says Carla Stevens, mother of three year-old Roman. “It means he can just take them out whenever he wants and it keeps him busy whilst I’m cooking.”

Carla has been coming to the Wonderful World of Play since Roman was a baby and isn’t about to stop any time soon. With her five day-old daughter in her arms she has many more sessions ahead of her. “I was here last week, heavily pregnant,” she explains, “gave birth over the weekend and am back again now. I haven’t missed a week!”

"My daughter was born on Sunday and I'm back here today...

Whilst their children are covering themselves in paint and foam the parents and carers get informal advice from different agencies who join in each week.

“We have health workers, speech and language therapists, dental nurses – a string of specialists who might not be consulted formally but who become part of the play session and ‘filter’ information in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere,” says Amanda.

When the dental nurse pays a visit there are toothbrushes in the paint pots and minty-smelly ‘goo’ to play with. When the fire service comes, not only do the children get to try on the helmets but the parents learn they can get their fire alarms tested for free.

“For an a hour and a half the adults get to ask questions of the specialist but also chat to each other,” continues Amanda. “This social interaction is crucial for many new mums.”

“Before having Liam I’d always worked full-time,” says Clayton resident, Claire Tomkison, “so it was a real shock to finish work and start maternity leave. I felt quite lonely and isolated and the weeks seem to drag on forever. I came down here to see what was going on and just started getting to know people. Once Liam arrived I signed up for every course going. I don’t know what I’d have done without the Children’s Centre.

“Some baby and toddler sessions are quite structured but here you get to talk to other mums and I always find it interesting to see what Liam gets up to when he’s playing with the friends he’s made. It just shows that you don’t need expensive toys… our children will learn from anything.”

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The Wonderful World of Play is on Fridays between 10 and 11.30. Phone 219 6177 or call in for more information.
Clayton Sure Start Children’s Centre, North Road, Clayton.

Revisit East in the next week for more about the Children’s Centre.

Simon and Vicky on part of the Gorton Heritage Trail: "It celebrates local heritage amongst outstanding wildlife habitats."

Simon hasn’t always lived in Gorton. In fact, when he moved here from Whalley Range in south Manchester just three years ago he admits he had negative preconceptions about the place. “I was pleasantly surprised when I saw this house,” he says. “But it was the location that really sold it for me: the views and the amazing habitats right on the doorstep.”

Simon’s small cottage is part of a conservation area with some older houses nearby dating back to the Gorton Hall estate. He didn’t realise until he’d moved in that his new home was right next to the Gorton Heritage Trail. “One of the neighbours gave me a leaflet, and that was the first I’d heard of it.”

The Trail was established 10 years earlier in 1997, inspired by local councillor and one time Lord Mayor of Manchester, James Ashley. It was Ashley and a group of local people he brought together who first recognised the potential of celebrating local heritage within a trail that took in some outstanding wildlife habitats. The trail includes Richard Peacock’s Mausoleum (he of Beyer Peacock fame), the ‘Dissenters Graveyard’ at Brookfield Church, an old salt road and lots of clues to an old tannery.

With his fiancée, Vicky Evans, Simon joined in with the group’s efforts to maintain the trail. “As ecologists we are both interested in practical conservation work – we help with the Wildlife Trust as well – and we thought we could lend a hand with some of the hard work.” Content with weeding, litter picking and clearing paths, he wasn’t so keen at first on joining the organising committee.

“James Ashley had died a year or so before I moved here and the committee was becoming gradually disillusioned. They’d put in a massive effort over the first few years but needed new blood to take things forward. And so, despite paperwork not being a strong point, I reluctantly agreed to come on board.”

The timing was good, however. In early 2009 the Environment Team at New East Manchester contacted the group and asked how they could help.

“They asked how the trail was being used,” recalls Simon, “and how it could be developed further as a community asset. Groundwork was then commissioned to conduct a consultation which lasted several months.”

Exhibitions were set up locally in the library and the indoor market; there were door-to-door questionnaires; and walkers were stopped on the footpaths and quizzed about their use of the trail. “Groundwork produced a really detailed masterplan which captured everyone’s comments and ideas and set out funding opportunities and a whole list of medium and long-term goals.

“It’s really invigorated the committee,” enthuses Simon. “Since then we’ve won funding for tools and safety equipment for our clean-up days and new computer equipment for all our admin.”

But there’s a lot to do. “One of the long-term goals is to have a pedestrian crossing at the point where the footpath dissects the busy Hyde Road. That’s quite crucial to the future of the trail. New East Manchester are also applying for an ‘Access to Nature’ grant on our behalf so we could afford a part-time development worker. Yes, the last 18 months have been good, which has been down to the help we’ve had from New East Manchester.

“If I were able to see into the future I’d see the trail being used by lots more local people, being well sign-posted and being accessible to local schools and youth groups for things like pond-dipping and bug hunts. It’d be great!”

See the Gorton Heritage Trail website here

Field Worker Amanda Crummett, centre, with the Young at Heart Group and their art mentors

The Young at Heart Group – set up more than two years ago and ‘adopted’ by Keele University’s CALL-ME research programme – flung open the doors of their community rooms on Gortonvilla Walk this week to show off their creativity.

Matty Wade: "It's my design on the T-shirt!"

Each member displayed a finished print mounted and framed on the walls with other limited editions on sale to raise funds for future projects.

The silk screening techniques were taught by artist Ian McKay and his son Andrew as part of the M12-11 arts project, set up in 2005 of offer creative opportunities to east Manchester groups and residents.

“I’ve enjoyed every part of this project,” says Matty Wade, who accompanies his partially-sighted grandmother to the group and whose design features on the group’s T-shirts. “We all took a vote on which image should go on the shirts and the group chose mine. That made me very happy.”

Eighty-five year-old Maggie Wade was, at first, reluctant to join in the group’s activities: “When they came to ask me if I’d like to join I told them I could only see light and shape and I’d never to able to manage. We started with pottery and I thought I’d never to able to do it but, with the help of these people, I’ve managed. I felt as if I was past it at my age, so it just goes to show.

“They’re starting keep fit classes on Wednesday so I’ll come down to that too!”

“Some older people hardly go out at all,” says club secretary, Audrey Hurley. “So this group has given them a chance to have a cuppa and a chat as well as make some fantastic art. We all enjoy the laughs when we get together.”

“CALL-ME is part of a longer research project aimed at improving the quality of life for older people,” explains Keele University’s Professor Michael Murray. “With our partners, we’re providing opportunities for older people in disadvantaged areas of Manchester to socialise. Here the Young at Heart group have produced some amazing artwork but mainly it’s been about people coming together.

Our field worker, Amanda Crummett, has been able to support the group to apply for funding, recruit a community artist and develop this project. We’re really pleased with the results.”

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Ben Lear: "Growing and cooking our own food... these are skills we could lose."

Ben’s new job seems easy enough: encourage local people to start growing their own food. On a sunny day in June with the first pea pods appearing in the EMERGE teaching garden, it is surely an idyllic task.

But, even with the increasing popularity of growing your own, the odds are stacked against him. On the main road opposite the newly created garden the construction of two new fast food outlets highlights our preference for instant, unhealthy food. Many of the lorries driving into the New Smithfield Market – where EMERGE are based – bring more fruit and vegetables from around the world and, says Ben, serve as a constant reminder of the importance of locally grown food.

Food containers, tyres... you can grow food in anything

Since arriving in April Ben has coordinated the construction of EMERGE’s teaching garden. There are now raised vegetable plots with courgettes, squash, leeks, spinach and lettuce all making a tentative appearance. Discarded tyres act as pots for potatoes; specially bred worms munch their way through food waste to make ‘the very best compost’, and a large ‘poly tunnel’ has been built as a classroom for Ben’s new project.

“We’re starting a four week course here on July 8th,” he says. “It’s aimed specifically at beginners to give people the confidence to start growing their own food. We’ll start by talking about soils; how to plant things and how to water them; which containers to use. Maybe later we’ll talk a little about garden design and crop rotation but we’ll see how we get on.”

Ben has already set up a Saturday gardening drop-in club down at the wholesale market. “There’s lots to do here and I’m hopeful local people will just pop along and get involved. We’ve built some beds but need more and there’s always lots of maintenance needed at this time of year.”

Keen to take his project out to the community, Ben has already forged linked with some local groups. “With the African Francophone Integration Project in Beswick we are creating a community garden and we might even try and grow some native African vegetables. But I’d like to hear from other groups or individuals who have a plot, however small, that they’d like to cultivate.”

Ben’s job at EMERGE – the social enterprise that spearheaded recycling in Manchester long before it become mainstream – is funded by the Manchester Carbon Innovation Fund. Manchester City Council has invested £1 million in local projects that tackle climate change.

Trucks bringing fruit and veg from around the world are a constant reminder

There are beehives in urban allotments, ‘green roofs’ on community buildings and, in the Northern Quarter, the first ‘smart energy business district’ where offices and homes can monitor and reduce their energy use.

“Following the Growing Foods Project we hoping to open a cookery centre here,” says Ben, “it’s the logical next step after you’ve grown your own local, nutritious food. My granddad is a great gardener and my grandma is a great cook and it’s those skills that we are in danger of losing.”

Like to know more about growing your own food?
Contact Ben Lear at EMERGE on 0161 223 8200 or ben@emergemanchester.co.uk

See EMERGE’s website
Read more about the Manchester Carbon Innovation Fund

The Ten Acre Lane Sports Complex: a homecoming for FC United

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Back in 1878, the year that football referees first started using whistles, the workers of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway would play their home matches on North Road, opposite the carriage and wagon works where the players toiled together during the day.

Their team – Newton Heath (L and YR) Football Club – played in a strip of gold and green and subsequently joined the newly-formed football league in 1892 and, a decade later, were renamed Manchester United.

The rest, you might say, is history and to continue the clichés, history does have a habit of repeating itself. So, only last month, FC United of Manchester, the anti-Glazer club set up in 2005, announced its intention to move back to its ancestral home in Newton Heath. Backed by Manchester City Council and New East Manchester the supporter-owned club plans to develop a rundown sports centre into a 5000-capacity stadium with community sports facilities alongside.

See FC United of Manchester’s website

"It's a story of how mistrust and apathy gave way to co-operation and mutual respect."

I’ve been following east Manchester’s regeneration since about 2005 and was commissioned at the end of 2008 to produce a ‘legacy’ book to mark the completion of the New Deal programme.

Sean McGonigle, NDC’s Co-ordinator, said the book should show how New Deal had changed east Manchester socially and physically, but, more importantly, demonstrate how the regeneration effort had helped individuals improve their lives.

Some might think that was a tall order: having to recount how lives had been positively changed through regeneration. Does it really happen? Well, there are plenty of people in east Manchester who would give an emphatic ‘yes’ to that and I have included some of their stories in this book.

There is the story of Gwen and Steve who bought a house on a Beswick estate in 1995 only to find it had a 96% crime rate. Working with their neighbours, with New Deal and with the police, they turned their neighbourhood around and it now has a crime rate of less than 1%.

Gwen Woolon: "I'd had enough. Something had to be done."

Then there is Shirley, stuck in a rut, who threw herself headlong into computers when the subsidised internet provider Eastserve come on stream in 2001. She started out as a volunteer and is now a full-time computer tutor at The Manchester College.

Or long-term out-of-work Carol who, with NDC support, gradually got herself back into work and now – as an Employment and Training Consultant – helps others do the same.

The book is set out in a timeline. It starts in 1731 when Ashton Old Road is first established and finishes in March 2010. Throughout the book I have sprinkled quotations from New Deal officers and residents, like this one from Clayton resident, Maggie Warburton talking about her area before New Deal: “The houses round here were an absolute bloody shambles. So in my infinite wisdom, I decided to have a go at the housing association… and the Council…and the police, and anybody else I thought needed kicking up the arse. We didn’t deserve this. All we were asking for was a decent street to live in and for them to do the job they were getting paid for.”

This is what resident Andrea Melarkey had to say about the whole ten-year process: “New Deal has made my area friendly. They’ve made it liveable, and people are happier. We chose to stay and I’m glad we did. We could have upped and left but we decided to stick it out and see it through. I feel really quite passionate now about where we live.”

I’ve interviewed dozens of people for the book and could have interviewed dozens more, there has been so much involvement in the project. But, after 186 pages, I’ve had to draw a line on this chapter of east Manchester’s recent history.

New East Manchester Ltd has planned for this moment for more than two years and so, although the New Deal funding draws to a close, the regeneration effort continues seamlessly and today will feel like any other in the area’s ongoing success story.

Congratulations to all residents and staff for their resolve and commitment to east Manchester!
Reclaiming East Manchester: Ten Years of Resident-led Regeneration is featured here on the Manchester Evening News website.

It is available to buy online at Cornerhouse Publications for £10.

Let’s get one thing straight. Eastserve is not what is was. The local internet service provider – set up in 2002 by New Deal for Communities to provide residents with computers, training and broadband connection – is now effectively split in two.

There’s the bit that still provides lots of community information and support for local residents, much of it compiled by local people themselves, which is online at eastserve.com. Then there’s the technical side – Eastserve Broadband – that continues to provide a competitive broadband service to hundreds of east Manchester homes and businesses using an innovative wireless network.

Although separate, both Eastserves are between them offering the same – if not more – than the previously combined service.

Keith Tongue: "No land line, no contract, no worries."

But it’s the broadband side I’m off to investigate for thisiseast.com. It’s twelve months to the day – give or take – that Beverley Hughes MP cut a ribbon outside Eastserve’s Ashton Old Road’s offices to mark the beginning of a partnership between private telecoms company, Symera and Manchester City Council.

It’s all part of what the regeneration people would call an exit strategy: they’ve used public money to set up and run a much-needed service to local residents and once it’s up and running they encourage others to get involved as the original funding comes to an end. At Eastserve it was Symera who saw an opportunity to get in at ground level in east Manchester.

“It’s not been a totally seamless transition,” admits Eastserve’s Keith Tonge. “It’s one thing to operate with ample public funds and another to make the books balance as a going concern.” With a view to the long term, Eastserve has trimmed its overheads – shedding staff and moving to smaller premises – to concentrate on their key business of providing a reliable, cost effective broadband service to residents and small businesses.

Keith, who has years of experience in the telecommunications industry, is now gearing up for a big push for new business. Although broadband operators are falling over each other to get new customers, Keith is confident the wireless hardware installed across east Manchester gives them a big advantage.

“Most other services come down the telephone line,” he explains, “and you can only get so much down it. But in this area we have 75 ‘access points’ on top of key buildings which relay the connection direct to the little square receiver we attach to each home, so we don’t use the local telephone system at all.”

This means customers can get online without the need of an expensive landline. There are no contracts either, but there is a one-off connection fee to cover the cost of installing the hardware. “We can reduce the connection fee depending on how customers pay us,” explains Keith, “and it’s even something the Manchester Credit Union will consider a loan towards if necessary.”

There’s a big marketing campaign starting soon and Keith is confident he’ll add hundreds of new customers over the coming months. “The beauty of Eastserve is we’re local: if there’s a problem there is no faceless call centre to negotiate, customers can talk to us right here in Openshaw.”

Using the same technology Symera can adapt the service for business customers: “We can use the local network to relay security camera pictures and other digital information,” says Keith. “We’re just beginning to take advantage of this state-of-the-art infrastructure that’s only fitted in this part of Manchester.”

More information on the broadband packages and other Symera packages available from Eastserve here, or call them direct on 230 6346.

… or, as Gortonians say, the City of Manchester becoming part of Gorton! Now there is a new book that records the 12 months of passion and pride as well as some of the achievements of the last 100 years.

Out on the 27th March: the Gorton 100 celebration book

The book – Gorton 100: Best Viewed from Within – is an 80-page pictorial account of the area’s historical features such as Belle Vue, Crossley Motors and Beyer Peacock as well as capturing the people of Gorton at play during the centenary celebrations.

Some highlights include images of the K1 steam engine, the first Beyer-Garratt produced by Bayer Peacock, being transported from the Museum of Science and Industry to its birthplace in Gorton… and then cheered by former employees of the engine works. Brilliant.

Childhood recollections have also been recorded. This is from Maria Koudellas as she recalls her wartime evacuation to Macclesfield. “A hot meal waited for us and for afters was the most delicious creamy rice pudding I have ever tasted. ‘Made from a beaten fresh egg,’ said Mrs Johnson. Then it was bath and bed, what bliss. Coming from a small two-up, two-down in West Gorton, no bathroom, two boys and two girls sleeping in the same bedroom, I thought I was in heaven.”

The book will be launched on 27th March at Gorton Market from 12-2pm with a host of free entertainment including Manchester’s own exciting, colourful band of drummers and dancers, Bloco Novo, the multi-skilled street entertainers, Curious Eyebrow, and the foot-stomping sounds of Dr Butler’s Hatstand Medicine Band.

Also available, at £5, by calling Gorton 100 committee member Rose Cusack on 0161 231 3532.

The book, and many of the events, was made possible by generous funding from many organisations including the Heritage Lottery Fund, New East Manchester and Manchester City Football Club.

And here’s a ‘shout-out’ for anyone who lives, works, studies (or just visits) Gorton…

The ‘Gorton Heart’ Facebook group is at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=170456026552&ref=ts and is for all to share local and family history; highlight educational achievements and opportunities; showcase Gorton arts – from Gorton Visual Arts and Gorton Voice to music, dance and literature. Find out what’s on at the cinema or when the local pub quiz nights or karaoke evenings are taking place and explore local opportunities for training and personal development.

The Facebook group is an opportunity to promote any local event to the whole community.

Clayton Hall: once home to the Byron family and the Chetham brothers

East Manchester continues to amaze me. The diversity of what goes on here and the commitment of local people is astonishing. This last week I found myself taking photographs in Clayton Hall, the 16th century ‘moated’ hall concealed in the middle of the unassuming Clayton Park. Each of four rooms are now decked out in the late Victorian style to give visitors a real taste of history in east Manchester’s most notable historic building.

Come and see the sunken cold store, dining room, kitchen and outside wash house

Yes, I’ve seen this sort of thing before in National Trust properties and in museums run by local councils. But here in Clayton – with the trams lines being re-laid outside on Ashton New Road – this piece of historical restoration has not been put on by a team of full-time curators but by local volunteers from the Friends of Clayton Park.

Over the last couple of years these dedicated volunteers have sympathetically renovated four previously empty rooms into what is now a cultural high spot and an invaluable learning resource for local schools.

Small grants have paid for some of the items – the kitchen range was bought from ebay – but others have been donated by friends and relatives and, since the displays have been open to the public, from visitors supportive of the Friends’ work.

Experience a Victorian kitchen: no fridge or microwave here!

The Grade 2 listed hall is open to the public every third Saturday of the month between 1–4pm (so that’s this Saturday, 20th March) and children are particularly welcome. There’s an ID quiz so youngsters can identify items in each room and plenty of hands-on activities from helping out in the kitchen to ‘ironing’ clothes in the wash house.

As a backdrop to the National Curriculum the Friends are keen to encourage more schools to book visits and use the hall as a teaching resource.

To contact the Friends email info@friendsofclaytonpark.org.uk or ring Manchester Leisure on 0161 231 3090.

The Friends of Clayton Park website