This section of the website gives information and news updates that we share with the print and digital media outlets in Appley Bridge and beyond.
February 2020
THE ANNUAL All Saints Big Breakfast for Christian Aid takes place on Saturday February 29th in All Saints school, 9-30am to 11am. This popular event is open to all, with food provided by Fur Klemt, the Wigan food charity, and a number of organisations represented on the day including Christian Aid, Edible Appley Bridge, Traidcraft, the RSPB and The Brick, Wigan’s homeless project. The breakfast this year will be raising funds for farming communities in Malawi to help the planting of a special crop, Pigeon Peas, as a more robust replacement for Maize, which is susceptible to failure in increasingly dry conditions. It’s pay on the door, adults £4-00 and under 16s £2-50.
All Saints Pupils present cheque to Cancer Research UK
APPLEY BRIDGE All Saints School Year 6 Young Leaders are pictured
presenting a cheque for £410-00 to Jo and Chris of Cancer Research UK, who came to the school on Wednesday February 12th.
They spoke to all of the children in assembly, looked at one of the Y6 journals, which are a record of their learning and achievements from the Young Leaders programme, and thanked them for the donation. Each Y6 pupil was also given a wrist band from the charity.
The Archbishop of York’s Young Leaders Award (YLA) is a fully resourced leadership and character education programme designed to be delivered by teaching staff in Church of England schools.
Said Headteacher Mrs Janet Dunn: “I am very proud of the achievements of our Young Leaders in setting a benchmark for us in Christian leadership.”
The year 6 children are pictured with Mrs Janet Dunn, Headteacher, and Jo and Chris from Cancer Research UK.
From the Ormskirk Advertiser
January 2020
THE ANNUAL All Saints Big Breakfast for Christian Aid takes place on Saturday February 29th in All Saints school, 9-30am to 11am. This popular event is open to all, with food provided by Fur Klemt, the Wigan food charity, and a number of organisations represented on the day including Christian Aid, Edible Appley Bridge, Traidcraft, the RSPB and The Brick, Wigan’s homeless project. The breakfast this year will be raising funds for farming communities in Malawi to help the planting of a special crop, Pigeon Peas, as a more robust replacement for Maize, which is susceptible to failure in increasingly dry conditions. It’s pay on the door, adults £4-00 and under 16s £2-50.
APPLEY BRIDGE Churches Together, a joint project by the Vale Methodist Church, All Saints C of E Church and St Joseph’s Catholic Church, is sponsoring a pea growing project for the three primary schools in the catchment area, Shevington Vale, St Joseph’s and All Saints. Children are being supplied with pots and pea seeds to grow pea plants as part of the drive to share the importance of growing sustainable crops in Malawi.
NEW SERVICE times have been agreed by the All Saints parochial church council. Sunday morning communion and lay led services will start at 10-15am, and the increasingly popular Family Time service will start at 9am. Please see the church website for more details of services at All Saints. www.allsaintschurch.co.uk .
ALL SAINTS new Craft Group, led by Linda Cunliffe, meets every Thursday in church between 1 and 3.30pm. Everyone is welcome: bring any kind of handicraft along, and join the group for an informal, chatty, crafty time. Help and assistance is available, but members don’t need to be skilled already. £1 per meeting, with 50p for refreshments. See the website for more details.
Fashion Exchange to combat used clothing climate threat
A NEW SOCIAL Enterprise that seeks to encourage the upcycling of fashion and clothing is set to be launched by an Appley Bridge internet entrepreneur. Fashion Exchange will encourage children and parents to exchange high value and nearly new items of clothing between neighbouring communities, using church and school networks as the communication channel.
It is the brainchild of David Mapple, Managing Director of Appley Bridge internet company Outcider (https://outcider.net). David, his wife Sarah and his family are members of All Saints Church, and the idea for Fashion Exchange came to him as a means of generating financial support for schools and churches in communities throughout the UK: “Fashion Exchange online creates the opportunity to fully capitalize on the growing trend of thrifting, generating additional revenues for local schools and churches,” he said, “It expands the target audience significantly, helping to buy and sell a greater volume of high- quality stock items. The system will look to fairly reward sellers who want credit for their items, to be exchanged for other items listed on the platform.
“The value of unused clothing in wardrobes in the UK has been estimated at around £30 billion. It is also estimated £140 million worth of clothing goes into landfill each year. The annual footprint of a household’s newly bought clothing, along with the washing and cleaning of its clothes, is estimated to be equivalent to the carbon emissions from driving an average modern car for 6,000 miles or the water needed to fill more than 1,000 bathtubs.”
In the UK, the average lifetime for a garment of clothing is estimated as 2.2 years. According to David, extending the active life of clothing by nine months can significantly reduce its environmental impact.
“As the fashion world moves toward a more sustainable model and Millennials’ spending preferences force brands to be more accountable, thrifting is making the transition from being something a few outliers did to save money, to being positioned as the next big fashion trend,” added David.
The Fashion Exchange website is being worked on with a view to going live early in 2020, and several events are being planned for the spring of next year to get the enterprise off the ground. The launch will be based on these events, where donated items are collected from drop off points, quality checked and displayed for resale. Any proceeds go back into the churches and schools that provide and sell the stock for that event.
David said: “The difference between Fashion Exchange and, say, EBay, is that users are willing to accept the social benefit of their item donations and accept that the credit value they will receive (if requested) will be lower than the resale value. This is the only way the platform can make funds for our communities. Parents will be actively encouraged to purchase credits and vouchers for their children to use on the platform.” “The aim of Fashion Exchange is to turn the excessive supply and consumption of high quality, or nearly new fashion garments, into revenue for our local communities. It won’t be an easy task and there are many obstacles to success.
“However, Fashion Exchange will also be designed to educate and encourage future generations to protect our planet and find enjoyable ways to do it. We will acknowledge, share and reward best practice and the most active users. We will celebrate leadership and encourage an entrepreneurial spirit for those who wish to help run the exchange. Together, we will try our very best to facilitate positive change and make a difference.”
Fashion Exchange will be introduced to the congregation at All Saints church on Sunday February 2nd, and at the Family Time service on February 9th, followed by a public launch of the project in March.
Return of the Appley Bridge Duck Race
with Reader Sara
APPLEY BRIDGE will be going ‘quackers’ on Sunday May 17th when the revived Duck Race takes place once again on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, as part of the day long village festival.
The Duck race, for many years an annual part of village life, was revived by the Appley Bridge Community Association and event organiser Elaine Roper in 2018 after a long absence from the local calendar.
Huge crowds flocked to Appley Bridge to enjoy a day of fun, music, food and games which looks set to repeat itself in 2020 Elaine said: “This year’s Village Festival looks set to be bigger, better and more fun than our fabulously successful day in 2018.”
The Duck Race will take place on the canal at 12-30pm with two thousand ducks being released from the Elleswake cruise boat near the Herons Wharf swing bridge.
“We are so grateful to Dominic and Nicola, licensees at The Wheatsheaf pub on Back Lane, who have generously bought the 2,000 ducks that will be wending their way down the canal on the day,” she added.
Ducks will be available to ‘sponsor’ for just £2-00 a go, with monies raised going to local charities. The first duck home will win £200-00, the second placed duck will win £100-00 and the third placed ‘quacker’ will scoop £50-00 for its owner!
The festivities will be held at various venues on the day, including the Bridge Inn in the village, which will be hosting a food outlet hub, as well as live music, including the Rock Choir, the Chaser live band, and an ice cream parlour and children’s bouncy castle.
At the Boathouse, the popular Elleswake cruise boat will be moored, offering youngsters the chance to create their own duck, as well as mini cruises throughout the afternoon on the canal. Ukulele music will also be featured at the Boathouse.
Excellent food and drink will be available at other village venues including the Wheatsheaf and Pesto on Appley Lane North, and there will be pop up refreshment stalls and roadside cafes, as well as a barbecue.
At the village community centre there will be a special community service taking place at 1-30pm, organised by Appley Bridge Churches Together, which brings together St Joseph’s Catholic Church, The Vale Methodist Church and All Saints C of E Church, with music and the symbolic release of white doves celebrating a special day for the Appley Bridge community.
Appley Bridge Community Association would like to invite members of the public to bring donations for food banks of none perishable food items to the community centre on the day : “ It’s a community event with a conscience: we have three churches involved in village life, and they are focusing at the moment on the need to tackle climate change through support for farmers in Africa, and thinking of others with support for food banks.”
Improved health and safety arrangements this year include the recruitment of at least 12 extra adult stewards to manage the canal banks, and the exclusion of the on foot public from the blue bridge, which became overcrowded in 2018 and was a bottleneck for local motorists as a result.
Information about the day will be updated on the Appley Bridge Community Association Facebook page.