The Friends of Handforth Station were saddened to hear the news of the death of founder member Barry Burkhill last weekend.

Barry helped to found FoHS in 1996 and was a FoHS committee member for many of the years since then. In his role as a Cheshire County councillor he provided many useful leads to appropriate Council officers and contacts.

John Hulme, President of Cheshire Best Kept Stations said  “I was very saddened to learn of the Barry’s passing and recall many times meeting Barry at our Best Kept Stations events.  In 2003, and the first year of Cheshire Best Kept Stations, the Friends of Handforth were commended and there was Barry alongside other Friends receiving the award (see above).

As a Friend of Handforth Station, former Mayor of Macclesfield Borough Council and former Mayor of Cheshire East Council, Barry will be sadly missed by Community Rail Cheshire”.

Mike Bishop, fellow founder of FoHS and current President of FoHS, said “Barry was a dedicated supporter of Handforth Station, most noticeably campaigning for improved access to the platforms and widened footpaths.”

Barry attended many FoHS events in his full Cheshire Mayor Regalia (including joining in one of their Folk Trains). He often represented FoHS at local meetings held by the Community Rail Partnership and Cheshire Best Kept Stations, and was also a regular attendee at the annual national Community Rail Network conferences.

Mike added “Barry worked on many of our monthly Work Parties at the station, using his own ancient lopping shears intead of those offered by the rest of our group. We shall miss him.”

The FoHS have lowered their FoHS flag at the station to half-mast, to commemorate Barry’s work on behalf of the local station.

Our Chairman, Mark Barker, writes ….

The judging for 2022 has been completed and the nominations are in.

We have been impressed with what we have seen. Station Friends Groups seem to have bounced back from the pandemic and there has been some really good work on Cheshire’s stations and with the communities.

We have had a difficult time in deciding the Awards.

But those decisions have been made, and attention is now turning to the 2022 Awards Evening.

Following feedback from the last Awards Evening we are moving the date back from our usual January date to a time when the evenings are lighter and the weather hopefully milder.

So please save the following date for the highlight of the community rail year in Cheshire:

Thursday 16th March 2023 at 7.00 pm.

The venue will, as usual, be the Grange Theatre, Bradburns Lane, Hartford, Northwich, CW8 1LU.

Further information, and invitations will be made available closer to the date.

Please use our Contact Page if you wish to be added to our Guest List

Christina Burgess from the Friends of Goostrey Station writes …

We can’t quite believe it!  On 6th October, at a ceremony held at  Manchester Central Convention Centre and attended by over 430 guests, Friends of Goostrey Station was chosen from over 1000 station adoption groups across the country to be presented with an award for their Outstanding Contribution to Community Rail.

We also won the trophy for the Most Enhanced Railway Space, following the renovation and conversion of the Victorian station building into Goostrey Art Studio.  And we came second in the competition for a photo to capture the essence of Community Rail; our picture was of FOGS members celebrating a seventh win in the Cheshire Best Kept Station competition. So FOGS took home two glass trophies, two cheques and three certificates!

The FOGS members who attended the event were amused to overhear someone asking ‘where is this place called Goostrey?’.

When FOGS was formed in 2012 the station building at Goostrey was unmanned and dilapidated. A small group of volunteers gradually improved the overall station environment but they were determined to renovate the building and bring it back into community use. In 2019, working with Network Rail, the Rail Heritage Trust and other partners, the building was restored and altered to create two large rooms which proved ideal for local professional artist Debbie Goldsmith to use as a studio.

The station has become a real creative hub, with Debbie using the building as a studio to paint, create wool rugs and prepare workshop materials. The workshops are designed to promote community cohesion and have been well-received by local schools and youth groups. A recent successful application to the National Lottery will partially fund the improvement of the facilities by installing a kitchen and toilets. This will ensure that more ambitious projects can be undertaken.

Jools Townsend, chief executive of Community Rail Network, said: “We are continually impressed by the breadth of the work delivered by the Friends of Goostrey Station, and their obvious commitment to engaging widely with their community and delivering positive change. Their work developing Goostrey Art Studio is a fantastic example of a historic railway building being lovingly restored and converted into a creative community hub. The group’s innovative endeavours to enhance the local environment for people and wildlife is particularly inspirational. We’re delighted that they have been working enthusiastically with us to share their experience on enhancing biodiversity with other community rail partnerships across Britain. We congratulate them on their achievements and this worthy win.”

Two FOGS members, Debbie Goldsmith and Christina Burgess, attended the award ceremony, but this was a real team effort. Many local people have worked hard over the last 10 years to improve our village station. The current Chair, Dave Roberts, and vice chair and treasurer, Craig Sidebotham, were instrumental in negotiating Debbie’s tenancy; and now they’re working hard to get toilet and washing facilities installed.  In addition, Craig promotes biodiversity and GIS mapping around the station and this was significant in securing the outstanding contribution award.

The Friends of Goostrey Station are delighted that they’ve been shortlisted in 3 categories in the national Community Rail Awards 2022.

Chief executive Jools Townsend said ‘this year there were over 230 submissions and the standard of entries was high’. The winners  of all 10 categories will be announced on 5 October at an Awards Ceremony in Manchester, an event jointly sponsored by Northern and Transport for Greater Manchester.

The photo entered by FoGS was one of ten which reached the final of the competition to find the photo that best captures the essence of Community Rail.  ‘Volunteer pride’ shows FOGS members celebrating their 7th win in the Cheshire Best Kept Station Competition.

The winner of the Community Rail Award will be decided by a public vote.

Chair of FoGS, Dave Roberts said ‘We’d be grateful if members of the public would consider voting. It’s very straightforward via this link https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/CRA22 or go to the Community Rail website.’ Voting closes at 10pm on 30 August.  

The second shortlisting was for Most Enhanced Railway Spaces. Our entry described the renovation of the Victorian wooden building and its transformation into Goostrey Art Studio, a creative hub led by professional artist Debbie Goldsmith.

The mapping of wildlife at Goostrey station was the focus of our entry for the category called Influencing Positive Change and Sustainability. FoGS member Craig Sidebotham uses a Geographical Information System to record species and locations. We are proud to share our successes and challenges with others in England and in the Azores. Community Rail has used this innovation as a case study to inspire others during a webinar and in a national report.  In an extension of the main project, Isocrone maps are being created which show distances and times in order to support greener travel. Stoke on Trent council has sought advice from FoGS about this initiative.

Click here for details of this project.

The Community Rail Awards recognise the important work carried out by employees and volunteers who work across Britain’s rail network to make stations welcoming spaces for passengers. Alongside this, many of those involved carry out vital community engagement work with schools, colleges and other local groups to help educate the passengers of the future.  This is critical to ensuring that our railways are an inclusive, sustainable, healthy way to travel.

Meanwhile, members of FoGS are regularly watering the tubs of colourful flowering plants on the platforms.  Our working parties continue on the second Sunday of each month between 10am and 1pm and extra helpers are always welcome. For more information about FoGS, please look at our website or speak to our chair Dave Roberts on 07494 976779