TV’s Aggie Mackenzie helps spring clean the Barge Inn
Left to right, Terry Kemp, Aggie Mackenzie, presenter of How Clean is Your House, and Sandra Bhatia, village champion. Sandra will be using her business skills and experience to help the villagers get the project up and running. Photo credit: Matt Faber/PA Wire
A group of villagers from Pewsey in Wiltshire recently received a grant from BIG’s Village SOS scheme to secure the future of their local pub, the Barge Inn, and operate it as a social enterprise.
Marking the start of community ownership, more than 30 local volunteers came together to give the pub a spring clean, led by Aggie Mackenzie, star of TV’s How Clean is Your House?
The villagers will use their Lottery grant to run the pub and offer the local community a range of other facilities including a village shop, craft and drama workshops, and employment and learning opportunities. The venture will also help to support tourism in the area, which is well known for the local crop circle phenomena and popular canal system, which runs right by the 200-year-old inn.
The Barge Inn is one of ten projects to be funded through Village SOS, which is responding to the plight of rural villages across the UK. The BBC will follow the journeys of six of the projects, including The Barge Inn, for a primetime show due to be aired next year.
Fun at the farm
It’s not every day you come across a donkey, ferret or sheep in central London, but more than 30 nursery children of Goosegreen Primary School in Southwark got paid a personal visit by some of their favourite farm animals recently, thanks to a Lottery funded project.
After winning a People’s Millions grant from the Big Lottery Fund, Surrey Docks Farm, usually based in Rotherhithe, can now transport their animals and equipment across the capital in their new mobile farm.
Children growing up in urban neighbourhoods now have the chance to learn how a real farm works, get face-to-face with the animals and learn where their food comes from.
BIG magazine distribution in Worksop
Awards for All funded steel band play publicly for the first time
The East Midlands team visited the town of Worksop in Nottinghamshire, where they were joined by a steel band which BIG funded through Awards for All. The team armed with 800 BIG magazines, donning BIG t-shirts and with the sound of the steel band in the background.
This is the first time that the band had ever performed in public and a few members said they had sleepless nights beforehand. Janet a member of the group said:
“We can’t thank the Big Lottery Fund enough for giving us this fantastic opportunity. We really enjoyed today and we know it will be the start of something wonderful for us, the community and people of all ages. Thank you all once again.”
Watch Steel Pantastic in action, filmed by Bassetlaw CVS…
If you would like to read the latest copy of BIG magazine, you can download the online version from our website.
Highlights from the latest issues
England magazine
In the latest issue of BIG magazine England, read about Fairplay Football in Scunthorpe an amazing initiative that has helped kids in rival neighbourhoods stop fighting. Also find out how Havering Age Concern is encouraging senior residents to go down the pub and how a Lottery-funded project is helping children visit their dads in prison, lowering the chances of reoffending.
Northern Ireland
Every mum’s nightmare came true for Teresa McKee when her young son Jamie was knocked down by a car in full view of his older brother. He suffered multiple injuries and spent days on a life-support machine while Teresa kept up a bedside vigil. But a Lottery-funded project has helped them pick up the pieces and move on with their lives.
Scotland
Read about Graham Conquer, who despite being homeless has now opened his first bank account, and Evelyn Ralston, who having become a carer to a loved one with dementia is finally getting the support to help with her new caring role thanks to the Big Lottery Fund.
Wales
A specialist centre funded by BIG is playing a major role in providing free advice and support for people with dyslexia in Wales. Paul Bailey’s life has been a rollercoaster of emotions, disruption and hardship. Looking out from this troubled existence there never seemed to be a way out – until he joined the Lottery-funded Urban Circle in Newport.
The National Lottery Awards 2010
We are now into the final few days of voting for this year’s National Lottery Awards, with the voting closing at midday on Friday 13 August. There are 21 projects that have made it through to the final round of voting, and 13 of these projects are BIG or Awards for All funded which is fantastic news. Last year 5 out of the winning 7 projects were BIG funded, so let’s see if we can match it this year!
Here are the BIG funded shortlisted projects in their respective categories:
Best Arts Project:
- Kidz R Us (Big Lottery Fund/Arts Council England)
- Streetwise Opera’s “My Secret Heart” (Big Lottery Fund/Arts Council England)
Best Education Project:
- Chances for Life (Big Lottery Fund)
- Stepney Bank Stables (Big Lottery Fund, Awards for All, Sport England)
Best Environment Project:
- Millennium Country Park (Big Lottery Fund)
Best Health Project:
- Access to Citizenship (Big Lottery Fund)
- Cruse Bereavement Care Young Cruse project (Big Lottery Fund)
- Food For Life Partnership (Big Lottery Fund)
Best Sports Project:
- Dromore Education & Community Partnership (Big Lottery Fund)
- Sportworx (Big Lottery Fund)
Best Voluntary/Charity Project, in association with Woman magazine:
- Blaenau Gwent Domestic Abuse Services (Big Lottery Fund, Awards for All, Sports Council Wales)
- Brighton & Hove Neighbourhood Care Scheme (Big Lottery Fund)
- Little Havens Children’s Hospice (Big Lottery Fund)
To find out more about the shortlisted projects and to cast your vote, go to the National Lottery Awards website.
The winners will be announced on a special BBC1 show on 4 September, where they will be presented with an award and given £2,000 to spend on their project.
Make age an AdvantAGE
We discovered some startling facts when developing our programme for older people in Wales. For instance over one million people in the UK aged 65 plus say they always or often feel lonely and nearly half of all older people consider the television as their main form of company.
For the vast majority, old age is a positive experience. But for too many others, older age can bring with it a number of challenges such as retirement, bereavement and illness which, without support, can lead to social isolation and loneliness.
The Big Lottery Fund in Wales launched a new funding programme in June to address these two issues. Wales has a higher percentage of older people than any other part of the UK. The AdvantAGE programme will invest £20 million in advocacy and befriending projects and we think the programme will help to transform social support for older people in Wales.
Don’t take our word for it – Gavin and Stacey star Margaret John, the Older People’s Commission in Wales and our very own Ceri Doyle all agree….
Big Lottery Fund
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