Past News 2025...

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.

October 2025

Welcome friends old and new to our brand new Cottonstones Community Centre website, and this first outing of our monthly news update. 

We will use our site to keep everyone updated with the latest goings on in the modernisation of the Centre, showcase our spaces for hire, provide information on upcoming events and ensure there are plenty of opportunities to get involved.

Clean Up | Clear Up | Glow Up

At our inaugural meeting on 17 September we looked at what had, and what could be cleared up, cleaned up, and, in hopefully the not too distant future, what could receive a glow up.

Cleaned up & Cleared up since May

• Hallway, toilets, lounge and downstairs kitchen scrubbed within an inch of their lives

• Hallway noticeboards tidied up and kept up to date

• Book Nook - secondhand book stall - set up and running 

• Hallway painted

• Lounge noticeboards removed, walls painted

• Redundant ceiling heater removed

• Ground floor larger space in process of being cleared ahead of clean and paint

Outside gang have helped clear more of our beautiful path to the front door, part cleared the shed of rubbish, made and hung a new gate, weeded and cleared a corner of the graveyard and planted roses there, cleared brambles from graves and cut the hedge by the gate.  The gang meet on Tuesday 10.30am to 12.30pm - all welcome to help and the kettle is always on.

A Thousand Thanks to ...

• Our ongoing Stretch and Tone fitness class with Julia (7pm Wednesdays) and Halifax Historical Dance

• All our volunteers and everyone who has supported one of the fundraising events 

• Bakers and sandwich makers and washer uppers at Rushbearing 

• Martin for making the new gate and Dave for fitting it

• Andy at Dulux Decorating Centre for the paint donation 

Next up

Our very first job is to finish the decorating on the hallway stairs and give the kitchen a lick of paint as well.  We are also going to tackle the ground floor larger space and turn it into a games room with board games, a dart board and a pool table.  

Check out the up coming events in What's On and the Calendar and if you'd like to hire a space click through to the booking enquiry form.  We also have very reasonable rates for furniture and glasses/crockery hire - get in touch for a quote. 

Fancy getting involved?

There are opportunities for everyone to contribute to ensuring a future for the Centre.  Drop us a line at contact.cottonstones@gmail.com or message the Facebook page at Cottonstones Community Centre.

All at Cottonstones Community Centre look forward to seeing you this Autumn.