Gorebridge Community Development Trust

Community Garden News

GCDTadmin — Sat, 19 Oct 2019 13:05:22 +0000

We are delighted to announce that Gorebridge Primary School’s After School Club now have a regular gardening session slot each week. They have responsibility for one the raised beds and they are also involved with our latest funded project through Volunteering Matters where we have received money to create a wildflower meadow within the community garden that will promote biodiversity.
The children have been absolutely brilliant and taken on the challenge with great enthusiasm. And along with their club leader Natalie and other staff members, they will plan what they want to plant in the raised bed and come up with some ideas on how we can continue to develop the garden space at the Beacon.

It is so lovely to have the connection between the Beacon and Gorebridge Primary as we have been very fortunate to have established similar links with Stobhill Primary and Newbyres Village as well.

At the end of each session we get out the storm kettle and make hot chocolate as well as enjoy some treats from the Community Fridge to reward all their hard work and dedication.

We are also keen to collect donations of the following items for the children to use in the garden, so if you have any of these, they will be most welcome. Please contact me at lornalagerman@gorebridge.org.uk

We need:
crates
pallets
tarps
ropes/string/cord
bungees
tree stumps/logs
tent pegs
clips/pegs

Thank you

CSGN project news

GCDTadmin — Fri, 12 Jul 2019 09:36:24 +0000

The main focus of the CSGN project is developing the Community garden at the Beacon. However, there have been some other activities which have been ongoing as part of the main project. These are the gardening that goes on with our neighbours at Newbyres Village and assisting with the garden club at Stobhill Primary School.

Newbyres Village

We are delighted to announce that UpMobility have taken on the gardening at Newbyres Village. Led by Iain Goodbrand and his team, the students have being doing fantastic work, growing a variety of fruit and vegetables for the residents to enjoy. They have also grown from seed, violas, cosmos, calendula, aster, lavatera and marigolds which have been made up into planters to put around the residents’ patios. We have had lots of great feedback from residents, staff and families at Newbyres Village about the great work UpMobility are doing and it has been an absolute delight to work alongside them. They are a wonderful group, always full of joy and bringing warmth and happiness with them.

Stobhill Primary School.

The garden club at Stobhill is run by the quite incredible Mrs. Hanley from P.6. She is quite literally a force of nature! As well as helping the school to achieve it’s Eco Green Flag status, she has also been awarded the WWF Teacher of the Year!

The work in the school’s garden has literally grown from strength to strength and they can now boast a polytunnel to continue their growing projects. The children involved are so passionate about sustainability and the environment and they were able to showcase this with a recent visit from Marie Gougeon, the MSP for Rural affairs and the Natural Environment. Ms. Gougeon was treated to a special power point presentation, hand built model of the garden area, a tour of the garden and the opportunity to take part in harvesting a crop of potatoes that were grown for a schools competition run by RHET! She was incredibly impressed with all the children have achieved as well as their knowledge on current affairs affecting the environment and has promised to visit them again in the future.

There has certainly been lots of exciting things happening in relation to the CSGN project this year.

For any more information about the project and how to volunteer, please email lorna.lagerman@gorebridge.org.uk

Free Polish – English Translation Drop-In

GCDTadmin — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 15:24:28 +0000

[one-third-first]We are now holding Polish-English interpreting services to the community, free of charge, on Mondays, drop-in between 2pm and 3pm.
This will include translating letters, forms, or indeed anything that needs to be translated! Local resident, professional interpreter, Monika Chlapowska, offers this service voluntarily.[/one-third-first]
[one-third]

Monika Chlapowska

[/one-third]
[one-third]Oferujemy darmową pomoc w tłumaczeniach Polski-Angielski. Mieszkanka Gorebridge i tłumaczka, Monika Chłapowska pomoże w tłumaczeniu listów, wypełnieniu formularzy lub rozmowach telefonicznych, w każdy poniedziałek między godziną 14 a 15. Serdecznie zapraszamy! [/one-third]

Board member stories; Archie Pacey

GCDTadmin — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 19:52:32 +0000

In 1996 I retired and, since I now had some spare time, the Chair of the Community Council invited me to take on the post of Secretary.[su_spacer]
Gorebridge was then going through a rough time. Employment was disappearing. Community facilities were disappearing. Our local high school was under sentence. We were denied access to grant funding from bodies such as the Big Lottery. We were not eligible even for a grant to support a local newsletter to keep residents informed, because we were classed as a statutory body. By 2002 we had no longer appetite for further encroachment on the quality of our village life. We were no longer saying: Why don’t they do this or that for our community? Instead Gorebridge voices were heard to say: What does our village need, and how can we manage to provide it?[su_spacer]
The Community Council started off two years of community consultation, which culminated in December 2004 with the setting up of Gorebridge Community Development Trust, an independent company with charitable status, committed “to promote the benefit of the inhabitants of Gorebridge and its environs without distinction of sex, sexuality, political, religious or other opinions by associating the local statutory authorities, voluntary organisations and inhabitants in a common effort to advance education and to provide facilities, or assist in the provision of facilities, in the interest of social welfare for recreation and other leisure-time occupations so that their conditions of life may be improved.”[su_spacer]

It would be difficult to go anywhere in Gorebridge without seeing evidence of the work of the Trust.
Of course, the highest profile belongs to the Beacon in Hunterfield Road that, when completed in late spring next year, will finally provide the flexible, multi-purpose facility recognised by Midlothian Council as badly needed, capable of offering benefit to each and every resident of Gorebridge and district.[su_spacer]
On that day Gorebridge folk will begin to discover for themselves the myriad ways in which the Beacon opens up possibilities for improving and enriching community life.