Only 7 days left for voting in the Trust’s “Nature and Green Spaces in Shotley Bridge” photo competition.
The 6 shortlisted photos are on show in Sale Pepe Restaurant, until the end of the month, where there is a box for you to cast your vote.
The two pictures receiving the most votes will receive a prize and the winning picture will be displayed in the restaurant for a further 12 months.
Ebchester Village Trust are hosting a talk in Ebchester Community Centre at 8pm on Wedneday 8 February.
The talk will be given by Duncan Hutt from the Northumberland Wildlife Trust, who are taking over the management of the Broadoak-Hollings Hill quarry sites. Duncan will provide an indication of their plans for this site and a chance to discuss them with him.
The talk will be preceeded at 7.30pm by the AGM of the Ebchester Village Trust. The formal part of the AGM will be kept as brief as possible but will include an update on the activities of the Trust and various projects in the pipeline for the coming year that may be of general interest.
This year the Trust has entered the village in ‘Northumbria in Bloom‘ and volunteers will be planting the trough and tubs with summer bedding in June.
On Saturday March 10th, the Village Trust are holding a social event at the YMCA to raise funds in aid of ‘Blooming Shotley Bridge‘. Local businesses are sponsoring the event.
Tickets are available from the Trust’s secretary. Please email: sbvt@singleton14.eclipse.co.uk.
[Click on the poster to enlarge]
An important meeting of the Shotley Bridge Hospital Support Group is being held on Wednesday 11th January to discuss the future of the hospital.
The meeting is being held in the hospital restaurant at 6pm.
It will be an opportunity to pull together a strategy about how the Group engage with management of the Foundation Trust and local GPs, who are going to be very important as the arrangements for new GP Commissioning Consortia come into play.
Everyone with an interest in retaining or expanding services at the hospital is welcome to attend.
The redevelopment of part of the former Shotley Bridge Hospital site had started with the clearance of trees and shrubs approved for phases I & II.
Click photo to enlarge
The site has been fenced off for safety and security as part of the enabling work, prior to the construction compound and investigation work starting this week. Construction traffic will be using the existing hospital access from Woodlands Road.
Story Homes are hoping to open the sales centre and show houses this summer, using the Elm Park access.
The remainder of the site is being managed by Story Homes, with further phases of development taking place over the next 7/8 years.
Any queries about the development should be made to the developer’s Carlisle office.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,400times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.
In 2011, there were 45 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 117 posts. There were 145 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 150mb. That’s about 3 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was November 26th with 168 views. The most popular post that day was Victorian Christmas Weekend.
The top referring sites in 2011 were:
Some visitors came searching, mostly for shotley bridge village trust,shotley bridge victorian weekend, and shotley bridge victorian weekend 2011
Most visitors came from The United Kingdom. The United States & Australia were not far behind.
These are the posts that got the most views in 2011.
The six baskets on the railings leading down to the bridge have been planted with winter bedding by Durham County Council.
The barrier baskets have been purchased by the Village Trust, as part of the Britain in Bloom Initiative.
[Click on photos to enlarge]
The final details of development on the former Shotley Bridge Hospital Site have now been approved.
Durham County council issued the planning permission certificate on the 24th November 2011. Story Homes are hoping to start development early in the new year.
All the details can be found on the Durham County Council website.
Yesterday saw the 10,000th hit on the site, just past its second birthday, with 92 page views in total during the day and 1077 during the entire month.
The highest number of hits in November was on the 26th when there were 168 page views recorded, with many users searching for information about the Victorian Weekend.
Photos from the Victorian Christmas Spectacular held at the weekend have been posted on 
You Tube.
Follow http://www.youtube.com/user/garthjh?feature=guide#p/a/u/0/KVd29x9xXOA to have a look.
The village’s Christmas tree has been ‘planted’ and decked with lights ready for Santa to magically switch on at 7pm this Friday, as part of the Victorian Christmas Spectacular
A big thank you again to Councillor Stephen Robinson for providing the funding for the tree and its installation, from his member’s initiative fund.
The Trust’s “Nature and Green Spaces in Shotley Bridge” photo competition is now open for public judging.
The Village Photographic Competition is now in its final phase. The judges have agreed a shortlist of 6 and it is now up to YOU to vote on which you think is best!
The 6 contenders are on show in Sale Pepe Restaurant where there is a box for you to cast your vote. Voting is open until 31 January 2012. Please come along to see which you like the most!
A planter has been purchased by the Trust and planted with daffodils and winter pansies. Daffodils have also been planted around it.
It has been positioned on Riverside where a water trough used to be, providing drinking water for horses.
The cost has been met from Councillor Stephen Robinson’s members initiative fund. He has also provided finance for some barrier baskets which are to be placed alongside the road leading down to the bridge. Also the landscaped area in ‘The Triangle’ is to be replanted as part of the same project.
The local press were in the village centre today taking photos to help publicise the forthcoming Victorian Christmas Spectacular.
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Everything is almost in place now for the event on Friday 25 and Saturday 26 November. Lets hope for mild weather this year
Once again, this year, the Trust is supporting this community event, organised by the Shotley Bridge Business & Community Partnership.
It is being held in the village on the 25th & 26th November.
On Friday evening the Christmas Tree will be lit with music and carol singing in the ‘square’.
On Saturday morning Santa will arrive by horse and carriage after which there will be carriage rides through the village centre. The Methodist Church will be hosting the afternoon’s entertainment and all the churches and village hall are providing refreshments at their Fayre or open day.
This is a charity event with 75% of all the money raised going to Willow Burn and 25% to the Trust’s ‘Blooming Shotley Bridge’ fund.
The participating businesses are funding all the expenses of the Spectacular and 15,000 leaflets are to be distributed soon, showing the programme of events.
You can click here for a preview of the flyer.
On Saturday morning volunteers from the Trust took out the summer bedding from the tubs and planted 500 daffodil bulbs and 900 winter pansies. Thank you to all the members who helped. [Click on photo to enlarge.]
At the October Open Meeting last Wednesday, Paul Atkinson, Rivers Officer of the Tyne Rivers Trust, gave an interesting presentation about the work of that Trust, particularly in relation to the River Derwent.
For more information, visit their website.
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Clare Singleton gave an update about Blooming Shotley Bridge and the RHS ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood Award’. It was generally agreed that the village should enter the Northumbria in Bloom competition proper next year. Four certificates and £10 Beveridge vouchers were presented to the best Front Gardens in the Trust’s Award Scheme, as selected by the Northumbria in Bloom visiting judge.
Garth Johnson talked about the judging for the photo competition and Jeff Singleton outlined the Trust’s involvement in the Victorian Christmas Spectacular, being held at the end of November. Volunteers would be needed again to help steward the event. Councillor Stephen Robinson gave his report on the local issues which he had been involved with since the last meeting.
In Durham Town Hall this evening, Blooming Shotley Bridge was awarded the highest category of ‘outstanding’ in the RHS ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood Award’. The judge had awarded the Trust 87/100 points.
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This year there had been 46 entries from across the region in this non-competitive award scheme, organised by the Northumbria in Bloom committee.
A big Thank You to all the businesses, residents and volunteers who helped the Trust achieve success.
Work has been completed on the new footbridge across the River Derwent at Shotley Grove.
Durham County Council completed the scheme earlier this week and it looks very impressive, with the bridge and approaches having been built to a high standard.
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A social evening to raise funds for Blooming Shotley Bridge is being held at 7.30pm on Monday 3rd October 2011, in Kings Restaurant, Front Street.
If you would like to support the event, a few tickets are still available from myself or committee members. The £5 cover charge includes a light supper, entertainment and quizzes. There will also be a raffle and tombola.
