Waters Edge Hosts Puppet Shows This autumn

Muddy Waters At Chorlton Train Station

This is one of Chorlton's claim to fame, when Muddy Waters played a Concert for granada on Chorlton train station platform.  I believe the platform is not the one Metrolink users may be familiar with, rather another one near Withington Rd.

Enjoy the blues...

Paul Ankers,
Editor, Chorlton Civic Blog

Friends Of Beech Rd Park Gardening Event

Paul Ankers

Chair, Friends of Beech Rd Park

There is a new home insulation scheme called TOASTY Manchester which is
replacing the previous Manchester Warm Homes project .

The package of measures includes:-

Free cavity wall insulation
Free loft insulation
Discounted loft insulation top up

The usual installation price is up to £350 each so you could benefit from
saving up to £700 if you have both loft and cavity wall insulation.
The free insulation and discounted offers are subsidised by Manchester City
Council and the funding will be limited.

If you would like a free no obligation quote or to request a surveyor to
call, please phone the Energy Saving Trust 0800- 512- 012

Bernard Leach

Looking for a secondary school...?

Chorlton High School Open Evening
Wed 28th September 6.00pm - 8.30pm

Chorlton High School invite you to visit and experience our school on Open Evening Wednesday 28th September 6.00 – 8.30 pm
Chorlton High School, Nell Lane, Chorlton M21
0161 882 1150

Paul Ankers

Editor, Chorlton Civic Blog

Chorlton Plant Swap at the Farmers Market this Saturday 24th Sept

Don't miss this great opportunity to swap plants and seeds and enjoy the Farmers' Market on Saturday 24 September.

Now is the ideal time to delve into your garden to collect seeds and divide plants. More information on how to do this is available via our website athttp://www.chorltonplantswap.org.uk/diy.html

They'll be outside the Horse & Jockey pub on Chorlton Green (M21 9HS) from 11.30am-4pm. Helpers always welcome too, so let us know if you have an hour or so to spare by emailing Danielle at chorltonplantswap@googlemail.com.

Check out the Google group for some online swapping https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/chorltonplantswap



Paul Ankers
Editor, Chorlton Civic Blog

Local Historian Philip Lloyd Talks about his Chorlton Life

Thanks to Bernard Leach

Manchester Poetry Festival

The Manchester Poetry Festival guys are offering complimentary tickets to community groups again this year.  Ideally the tickets are for residents who would potentially find the cost of these events prohibitive. 

They can offer up to 10 comp tickets for each of the events listed below (have also attached some copy for further information) - should hopefully provide an interesting selection.

Can you please ask groups to let us know which events they want to attend by 30th September - we will also need a contact for each group leader so we can liaise with them re. ticket delivery. Post in comments if you wish to get a Chorlton Civic Society group together
The Manchester Sermon at Manchester Cathedral , Tuesday 11th October, 7pm 
http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/11th-october/manchester-sermon-with-andrew-motion
Roma Tearne at International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Friday 14^th October, 6pm 
http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/14th-october/roma-tearne
Allan Stratton  at Contact, Saturday 15^th October, 4pm 
http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/15th-october/allan-stratton 
  
Emma Jane Unsworth & John Niven at Waterstone’s Deansgate, Saturday 15^th October, 6pm 
http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/15th-october/emma-unsworth-and-john-niven 
  
Tahmima Anam & Dipika Rai at Manchester Town Hall, Sunday 16th October, 1pm 
http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/16th-october/tahmima-anam-and-dipika-rai 
  
Kishwar Desai & Moni Mohsin at Manchester Town Hall, Sunday 16^th October, 2.30pm 
http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/16th-october/kishwar-desai-and-moni-mohsin 
  
Navtej Sarna & Shrabani Basu  at   Waterstone’s Deansgate, Monday 27th October, 6pm 
http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/17th-october/navtej-sarna-and-shrabani-basu 
  
Writing Freedom: The Story of English PEN at International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Saturday 22^nd October, 3.30pm 
http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/22nd-october/writing-freedom-the-story-of-english-pen 
  
Catherine O’Flynn at Waterstone’s Deansgate,  Saturday 22^nd October, 6pm 
http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/22nd-october/catherine-oflynn 
  
Francesca Simon at Whitworth Art Gallery, Sunday 23^rd October, 5pm 
http://www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/23rd-october/fransesca-simon 


Paul Ankers
Editor, Chorlton Civic Society Blog

Chorlton Decides Community Funds

For the past couple of years, Chorlton has had U Decide events that allow the community to vote on which projects that benefit the community.  Some groups that have benefitted have been Waters Edge Arts Centre, Ivygreen allotments and Oswald Rd school amongst others. Perhaps your street or group could benefit next!

CHORLTON WARD U DECIDE PROJECTS

·       One application per group to be submitted by 17/10/11

·       The maximum value per application is £750

·       All project ideas must benefit the Chorlton community

·       Projects will be voted on by Chorlton residents at our “U Decide Event” – If you live in the ward, come along and voteon 17th Nov, 6pm at Chorlton Leisure Centre

For more information contact your Regeneration team:

Kirsteen Armitage on 277 1880 / 277 1894 or email k.armitage@manchester.gov.uk

Paul Ankers

Editor, Chorlton Civic Society Blog

Reminder: Chorlton Food Market This Saturday

Chorlton's regular Food market is on this Saturday outside the Library.

Southern Cemetery Gets Green Flag Status

Southern Cemetery has been awarded the prestigious Green Flag Award after three years of improvements and hard work.

Manchester City Council have worked closely with the Friends of Southern Cemetery and partners, such as the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, to improve facilities and raise standards to be awarded the Green Flag – the UK’s benchmark standard for green spaces.

The flag was raised on Monday 5 September to celebrate Southern Cemeteries’ first ever Green Flag Award since the scheme was launched in 1996.

The work focused on creating and maintaining a clean and attractive cemetery that visitors and residents could enjoy, while giving residents the opportunity to have their say in the management of the space.

This included clean up operations by members of the Friends Group and the local community, as well as a scheme to resurrect 4,000 headstones that were laid down due to safety concerns – providing work placement opportunities for local residents and resulted in permanent jobs for two apprentices.

The Southern Cemetery is one of the largest municipal cemeteries in Europe with more than 117,000 graves spanning 135 acres – including the graves of L S Lowry and Victorian philanthropist John Rylands, amongst others – and includes a number of historic buildings – five of which are Grade II listed.

The cemetery is also full of a surprising array of wildlife and bio-diversity that has been managed and protected as part of the improvement works. So much so that local schools are planning to visit the cemetery to take advantage of the rich history and wealth of nature present in one of Manchester ‘s most valuable open spaces.

Each year more than 1,000 burials take place with ceremonies representing the diverse cultural make up of Manchester and the cemetery has taken care to provide facilities to accommodate all cultural needs.

Councillor Mike Amesbury, Executive Member for Culture and Leisure, said: “This Green Flag award has been much deserved after the hard work and improvements that the cemetery has enjoyed over the past few years. Apart from the tremendous clean up effort, the project has also found two apprentices full time work – which is just brilliant.

“Manchester has more Green Flag open spaces than any other council area in the country, a source of real pride for everyone – from volunteers to council workers – who works to keep them great.”

Matt Gallagher, Chair of the Friends of Southern Cemetery Group, said: “On behalf of the Friends Group I would like to say how appreciative we are for the hard work of the cemetery staff and residents whose effort has been vital in receiving the Green Flag award. We have enjoyed a superb relationship with the City Council staff throughout and hope this continues in the future.”

Paul Ankers
Editor, Chorlton Civic Society Blog

Arts Festival

For fifteen days, from May 16 to 30th, Chorlton was buzzing with superb entertainment and events that you could possibly get to catering for all tastes.
I was fortunate to get to about ten of them, mainly the midday music recitals, but also 'This is Chorlton Calling' with the 50 local cast members singing and acting their hearts out to tell the ancient and modern history of the village.
We had art in the cafes, pubs, hanging from our trees and displays in churches.  Our own 'Art in The Park' had perhaps 2-300 artists taking part in chalk drawings, model & flower making with an age range from 18 months to an admitted 82 years.
One anonymous poem was particularly intriguing - entitled The Madness of Hamsters
            They come to visit you
            Every night they come
            They take your brain bit by bit
            And feed it to their
            Mum

Thanks to everyone who took part to make it such a fun event and our helpers, mainly Ursula Harries and Adam, Unity Arts & John McGann our park warden

Jenny Slee
Chorlton Civic Society Chair

Summer Solstice

The enthusiastic events manager at the Horse & Jockey, Emily Fisher, keeps coming up with splendid ideas and occasions to maintain our community spirit.
The summer solstice event at the end of June went ahead despite the arson attack which destroyed the carefully built replica of Stonehenge and the co-incidental theft of the hog roast vehicle and all its contents.
Fire eaters, dancers and face painters rose to make the occasion a great success and the tree that got scorched in the arson attack appears to be making a recovery.

Jenny Slee
Chorlton Civic Society Chair