Past News 2026...

Mill Bank & Cottonstones newsletter Autumn 2026

From the Newsletter...we were delighted to receive front page coverage featuring the rushbearing cart and procession arriving to St Mary's, the handing over of the rushes and further on in the edition a run around of recent Community Centre (and St Mary's) news.  

The full newsletter can be found on the Mill Bank website.

Spring update from your chair

A huge thanks to all who came along to support the Writer’s Event on 21st February in the community centre.  We had a full house upstairs, beautiful live guitar music on entry, played by Michael Beazley, delicious wine donated by Ray (Ripponden Wine Co), a brilliant team of happy helpers, and a highly entertaining and insightful panel of very talented writers and illustrators.  Apart from having a great evening, we raised much needed awareness and funds (a whopping £275), and made some lovely new friends who want to help us too. Personally, it lifted my spirits enormously to see 37 people on a rainy night in February, come together in our community centre, to hear the authors read from their books, discuss their creative practices, and share thoughts with such a lovely friendly crowd.  I’ll be forever grateful to our writers, Chris Mould, Graeme Hall and Stephanie Power, for giving their time generously, for entertaining us heartily, and for being great panelists.  We’ve heard such a lot of very positive feedback from this event, that more cultural events must surely follow.

Big thanks also go to…

It may have been a chilly and quiet start to the year with activities at the community centre, but we were bowled over by the kindness of a number of individuals, organisations and groups who made generous donations at the end of 2025, and into 2026.  These truly kind offerings will enable us to pay our share of the bills and keep the community centre going during 2026, and are deeply appreciated by everyone involved.

Coming Up...

Spring is most certainly on its way now and the warmer months will mean we see more of our friends and neighbours in the village. More events are in the pipeline, but for now…

• Churchyard spring clear-up - volunteer outdoors to help clear weeds and brambles, likely to be a dry day in April but date tbc.

• Social & Games Nights - starting up regularly in July again with Fiona Peach

You can keep up to date on the Cottonstones Community Centre website events page, Facebook page, or noticeboards in the village and church.

Get Involved...

Everyone is welcome. It really is that simple, and we’d love to see more of you at the centre this year.  Every little gesture really does help us - from popping up a poster on the noticeboard, to making a pot of tea for a visitor to the centre, or simply just turning up to an event.   If you’re interested to see what we’re doing, come along and have a chat over a cuppa.  

• Rent the room for a private event - a birthday party, christening, family get together, baby shower…

• Rent a room for a public event - host your own fundraiser, charity event, cultural event, craft fair, exhibition, bingo, jumble sale…

• Come along to one of our quiz or games nights - always a different host, prizes…

• Volunteer - come along and help out at one of our events.  We would very much appreciate your help!

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.  

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.

January 2026 News from your Treasurer

Well, the Cottonstones Community Centre has enjoyed what many would say been a fantastic finish to 2025, and 2026 promises to be another great year for local residents. Whether attending from Cottonstones, Mill Bank, Soyland, Ripponden, Triangle or beyond, we are all part of a Communityand we are all here to socially share and support one another in a friendly and safe environment.

From the Treasurers perspective, and with the support of the committee, we have for the last 6 months been finding our feet determining what works well, and what works ‘really well’, and all this has been achieved on a shoestring budget. The Community Centre also has overheads like heating for example which costs £3,000 a year, and every month, whether we have a function or event, we have to pay out £250, so it’s vital that we raise enough to cover this and other expenses if we are to continue providing a welcoming community hub where everyone can come together.

We don’t like the idea of selling admission tickets at the door but would rather raise money from events based on kind donations from everyone attending. So if you have a really fun evening and all your friends and family enjoyed themselves then it would be nice to see that reflected in the size of the donation. It can be an economical fun evening out by bringing your own drinks and nibbles while using all the facilities.  We thank everyone for their kind and generous donations over the past 8 months, all of which have kept us moving forward to keep the door of the community centre open.

Some events have been very well attended, like the Quiz Nights – who doesn’t love a good quiz?  Thanks have to go to all the quiz setters who have given their time researching and presenting an eclectic mix of questions covering every conceivable genre imaginable. We have had a modest prize for the quiz winners - a bottle of prosecco - until our December quiz night where Claire Murray (artist and our very own chair) kindly donated 3 small paintings as special prizes.  

Another great evening’s entertainment has been found in the form of Games Nights and Social Evenings where we have seen parents and children pitching their talents against each other, or other teams, in games covering table tennis, pool, darts and board games. Even the more serious gamers have been spotted pondering their next move over the chess board while others, set on just having a laugh and giggle, tease their opponent in a game of Jenga. There’s a good variety of board games to suit all the family available on the shelves in the pool room, but if there’s something we don’t have that you feel would be a popular challenge then let us know and we will see if we can provide. It’s a good ‘value for money’ night out with friends when you consider the alternatives.  But if it’s just an opportunity for a quiet social catch up with friends that you’re after over a cuppa or a drink then there’s always a table and a comfy chair for that too.

There will be greater emphasis this year on other events promoted by the Community Centre that we would like to see incorporated more into the calendar. Events like Bingo Evenings and Special Guest Speakers are on the cards but we are open to your suggestions if we can get the numbers in to support the event.

For those of you that are not familiar with the Community Centre there is also a huge Open Space/Sprung Dance Floor available for private hire upstairs. We already have regular weekly bookings for dance classes or stretch and tone classes utilising this space but more events can certainly be accommodated. Whether it be a regular event or a one-off birthday, anniversary, christening, wake or lecture, this is an attractive venue.  Furniture hire is also available for your own external off-site functions if required.

You can have a look at our web site www.cottonstones-community-centre.com and search the calendar for upcoming events or if you’d like to be an active committee member we’d warmly welcome your support.

Stuart Mills

Treasurer, Cottonstones Community Centre

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.