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November 2025

A little update from me, your chair of the Cottonstones Community Group.  I'll try to be brief but there is so much good news to share with you about how our little community centre has begun to re-emerge from its hiatus.  

The clear up, clean up, glow up process continues in earnest, and we have now cleared and deep cleaned the upstairs kitchen, which is now ready for a much needed upgrade.  We were so grateful to be able to accept some funding to support this upgrade from the Ward Forum Grant scheme, and the generous provision of all the fixtures and fittings from someone in the village who works in this sector.  We hope to start work on this very soon, so watch this space for the before and after photos!   We are also so very grateful to the Sowerby Bridge Freemasons for raising funds for us to buy a replacement fridge, urn and new kettle for the downstairs kitchen too. 

On a personal note, I hosted a lovely Sip and Draw evening last month, which was fully taught but very social, and attracted creatives of all ages and abilities.  We enjoyed a couple of relaxing hours, drawing, chatting, laughing (those self-portraits were fun!) and enjoying our BYO refreshments.

November saw the grand opening of our games room and the first social games night, closely followed by a second, with pool, darts, table tennis, Jenga, Connect 4, Scrabble and Chess all being played (I’m personally enjoying discovering who all the secret darts and pool hustlers are!).  The social games night is an opportunity for anyone to come along and enjoy an evening with warm company, and there’s no obligation for everyone to play.  We have been so fortunate to have been able to secure some Bridge tuition too, and we now have the small beginnings of an emerging Bridge Club.  There were many generous donations, transport and trailers loaned, time offered, and many hands on deck to get the room cleared and ready for its transformation to games room, and were all immensely grateful for the help to get it off the ground.

Outdoors, our volunteers continue to prune, clear and improve and we have a beautiful new bench along the side of the church, kindly arranged by one of our parishioners.  We are hopeful that more handy gardeners will join our gang to help get the shrubbery spring ready.

Coming Up...

As we continue through November up to Christmas, we have the regular quiz night coming up, wreath-making workshops, carols evening, film night and the continued bookings from the regency dance group and keep fit classes.  You can keep up to date on the Facebook page, the events page or noticeboards in the village and church.

Get Involved...

There's much to do still but we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the support and goodwill we have received so far.  Our goal is to ensure that there is a community space for our friends and neighbours to meet up in, to laugh, enjoy good cheer and simply get together.  Getting involved can be simply turning up to one event a year, or baking a cake for the summer fete (there's an idea!).  Lending a hand at an event helps out all our helpers, and makes light work of setting up or clearing away at the end of the night.  And we really do appreciate every gesture of help, right through to your generous donations that support our events.  

Did you know that you can rent the room for £25 for the session (AM, PM or evening) and host your own event?  It could be a private party, a fundraiser, a ceildhi, dance, pie and pea supper, or a village social - we don't mind!  The community centre belongs at the heart of the community so please feel warmly welcome to come along and see what we're doing.  Come along, the doors are open, and the kettle is on...

Claire x

Chair, Cottonstones Community Centre

Hire the space - contact.cottonstones@gmail.com

Drop us a line at contact.cottonstones@gmail.com or message the Cottonstones Community Centre Facebook page.