ALMOST four years on from a successful lottery bid, Lymm Heritage Centre is going from strength to strength despite lockdown and now has a strong financial footing to carry on telling the story of the village.
Since Lymm Heritage Centre heard the exciting news that they had been awarded £88,000 to help fund a project to tell Lymm’s Story through education, an on-line archive and, most excitingly, through the development of the Centre itself, it is just the beginning for the community project run by volunteers.
On January 31st that project officially came to an end and the team behind it have been celebrating a great success even if the Centre is currently unable to open to the public due to the pandemic.
The final report presented to the Heritage Lottery fund contains some impressive numbers: 20,000 visitors, 5,000 followers across two facebook pages, over 1,000 children participating in education activities and over 3,000 visitors to the online archive, thelymmarchive.co.uk which now hold almost 3,000 entries.
“The numbers make exciting reading,” said the Centre’s chair Alan Williams. “Our mission was always to share heritage and add to what is already a strong sense of community pride and identity. But we are also thrilled to have had such a positive impact for individuals including the 100 or so volunteers who have been involved at some stage in the project as well as our many visitors and the people who have shared their stories with us”.
A huge amount of work has also been done over the last twelve months that the public has yet to see, including a video wall and an exciting exhibition about Lymm’s many traditions from soulcaking to May Queen, plus games and activities for children.
“We can’t wait to be able to open our doors and show the public what has been achieved,” said volunteer co-ordinator Mark Linnell .
There’s even more good news on the financial front as treasurer Patrick Knowles explained. “We have been conscious from day one of the need to generate income in a variety of ways from friends to local support from organisations like the Parish Council. Room hire and retail have also been important with Centre’s books and jigsaws being especially popular. We now have a strong financial base for the future, thanks also the Heritage Lottery Fund and to our benevolent landlord, Howard Platt whose generosity got us started”.
Until the Centre opens then potential visitors are encouraged to explore Lymm’s fascinating past through the digital archive.e LyDiA at thelymmarchive.co.uk which has been co-ordinated by another member of the team, Glynis Allen.
If you have stories to tell, pictures or objects to share or would just like to get involved you can contact the Centre via their website www.lymhic.co.uk
