Cheshire Best Kept Stations

John Hulme

The Donna Louise Hospice at Handforth Station

The Friends of Handforth Station (FoHS) continue to plan for the installation of lifts to enable Access For All.

In preparation for this, they are working with many groups especially, related to the planned improvements, those who cater for the disabled, the disadvantaged, the underprivileged, and the terminally ill.

Adding to the recent exhibition on behalf of the homeless (still visible in the ticket office and in “Art In A Box”), FoHS have now teamed up with the Donna Louise Hospice for Children & Young People.

The station’s latest “Platform for Art” display is an outdoor exhibition of paintings, created by families who rely on the care services offered by the Hospice, which can now be seen on the station concourse and on the Manchester-bound platform.

The Donna Louise Hospice provides a lifeline to hundreds of families across Staffordshire and Cheshire who are facing every parent’s worst nightmare: the heart-breaking knowledge that they will almost certainly outlive their child.

The Hospice explains:
“The Donna Louise Hospice is far brighter than you may think. It is belly laughs and best friends, it is light in the darkest hour, it is glitter and sparkle, Xbox and drums – it is real understanding. Whatever our children, young people or families need, the Donna Louise Hospice is there.

“We were delighted that the Friends of Handforth Station could display our paintings and spread our message, and we hope they provide a colourful contribution to this lovingly cared-for station.”

Mike Bishop, the President of FoHS, added that:
“We appreciate that in the present ‘lockdown’ conditions, far fewer people than usual will have the chance to see this wonderful exhibition. However, we plan to leave the paintings on display for many more weeks so that, as travel restrictions ease, they will give pleasure to our regular and irregular station users alike.”

Prints of the paintings on exhibit are also available for purchase, with all proceeeds going to the Donna Louise Hospice.

You can contact them at https://www.thedonnalouise.org/ .

My Cheshire Children’s Art Awards

The Mid Cheshire Community Rail Partnership are proud to announce their Childrens Art Competition …..

The Mid Cheshire Community Rail Partnership has announced a children’s art competition called the MY CHESHIRE POSTER AWARDS to provide a teaching resource for children who are unable to go to school due to the Coronavirus.

They have teamed up with Chester artist Nicky Thompson to design the awards which are open to all Cheshire children aged 4-11.

The awards are split into 2 age categories: 4-7 and 8-11…with a winner and two runners up in each bracket.

All winners and runners-up will receive a professional set of coloured pencils, and the two overall winners will see their designs adorn 12 station platforms on the Mid Cheshire Line Stations that connects Chester to Manchester via Northwich, Knutsford, Altrincham and Stockport.

The inspiration for the competition is Nicky’s recent Made In Chester exhibition at The Grosvenor Museum.

Click here to look at some of the entries that have already been received.

John Hulme, a member of the Mid Cheshire Community Rail Partnership and President of Cheshire Best Kept Stations said:

“We hope this project will help teachers and mums and dads by providing an interesting art project to work on with their children, and it will give everyone an opportunity to look at Nicky’s iconic artworks and the history behind them.

“The competition is open to all school children up to 11, no matter which city, town or village you come from.

“All we ask is that the painting is of your favourite place in Cheshire.

“We are working on something really special for the prize giving event, so watch this space!’

Mr Mark Barker, Chair of Cheshire Best Kept Stations said: 

“This poster competition is a great way of involving children in a worthwhile project and helping them to think about their towns and communities.”

Mr David Briggs, the Lord-Lieutenant of Cheshire said:

“This Art Competition has my full support and I am looking forward to seeing our children’s paintings of beautiful Cheshire.

“In these fast changing times, this is a fantastic opportunity to bring out the best in our children and a unique way of keeping them occupied.

“I wish everyone who enters this competition every success.”

Marketing Cheshire’s Nicola Said commented:

“We are delighted to be sponsoring this competition…Nicky’s posters are so beautiful and colourful, we hope that the young artists of Cheshire can use this inspiration to create something magical that will cheer us all up at this difficult time.”

Nicky Thompson said:

“It’s a lovely little competition and I am really looking forward to seeing what the young artists of Cheshire come up with.”

The awards are open until 1st May 2020 and the judges are Nicky Thompson, John Hulme and Katrina Michel (Director CH1 ChesterBID).

Click here to enter the competition and download the template. There is also a downloadable Teacher Resource.

Annual Report 2019

2019 Cheshire Best Kept Stations Annual Report

In 2019 we continued the range of ‘sponsorship packages’ to raise funds from the rail industry and were pleased with the generosity of the response. We attracted new local business sponsorship from Morris Homes of Wilmslow.  Northern were our  Main Sponsor in spite of their difficulties during the year. Without this welcome support the Best Kept Stations Awards would not be possible.

The 2019 Cheshire Best Kept Stations Awards were held at the Grange Theatre, Bradburns Lane, Hartford on Tuesday 28th January 2020 with special guest Kulvinder Bassi, Community Rail Team Leader at the Department for Transport. Approximately 150 people attended, including Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Cheshire – a long-time supporter of CBKS, and Mayoral representation from all eight of the Boroughs that now constitute the historic County of Cheshire.

We had some truly superb winners this year including:

Our overall winner for the year was Rose Hill for some splendid work involving the community and local business in decorating a long unattractive wall with hundreds of mini-murals, in celebrating the 150th anniversary of their line plus the usual high standard of gardening and the warm welcome that passengers always receive there. This is the first time that the overall winner has come from the metropolitan part of Cheshire.

We invited nominations for a new Award, the ACoRP Campaign & Communication Award. Goostrey were worthy winners with the completion of their long running campaign to restore and repair their almost unique station building. I would also highlight Handforth, winners of the Morris Homes Community Award for their  single-handed effort in successfully bidding to the DfT’s Access for All Fund for a £2.5m  scheme to install lifts. This is a remarkable achievement for a Station Friends Group. The John Hobbs award was presented to Frodsham and Runcorn stations in recognition of the work of North Cheshire Rail Users Group in restoring regular passenger services to the Halton Curve.

A special presentation was made to Sally Buttifant MBE in recognition of her 10 years work as Community Rail Officer for the Mid Cheshire Line and with CBKS.

Click here for a full list of  2019 winners.

I would particularly like to thank the hard work of the organising group; Secretary Chris Dale, Treasurer and Community Rail Officer Steve Forde, Community Rail Officer Marina Farey, Committee Members  Judie Collins, John Kitchen and Bob Withy, and not forgetting John Hulme as  our President.

It has been a joy to recognise and celebrate the hard work, enthusiasm, creativity and community spirit in the 2019 Awards.  2020 is going to be a very different year and we will do what we can to help rekindle all that energy when we can.

Please note becuase of Covid-19, our 2020 Annual General Meeting has been postponed until further notice.

Mark Barker
Chair
Cheshire Best Kept Stations
April 2020

News from the Community Rail Network (formerly ACoRP)

The Community Rail Network gives advice on how community rail can stay active, productive and positive and continuing to make a difference to our communities, while looking to the future.

They have eight suggestions: some on supporting your communities now, and others about strengthening your position to help community rail redouble its efforts in the future.

Click here to read Community Rail News dated 1 April 2020

Latest artwork at Handforth Station : Stories from the Homeless

Handforth Railway Station is currently exhibiting a unique and rare collection of personally handwritten poetry from the homeless community living on the streets of Manchester.

Outreach worker Ged Austin (known as The Urban Poet) encouraged the rough sleepers to tell their own stories in poetry – he worked alongside them running small workshops in the doorways and colder places. These rare stories archive who the homeless are, how they got there, and how they feel about life.

Ged (shown above presenting the poems and pictures at the station)  has won their trust of these homeless people during the years, and has personally supported them with clothing, much needed provisions, and advice about support services they can access.

On display at Handforth Train Station is a selection of the nearly 100 poems he has collected, over the past 5 years, from the streets of Piccadilly and beyond Manchester’s town center.

Also on display are photographs of the life and hard times that these people endure on the streets of Manchester. The exhibition reveals the real poverty that can overwhelm people who slip through this country’s social net.

Ged said, “The aim of these poems and photos is to show the real human beings behind the arbitrarily-assigned labels of beggar, addict, prostitute. We want to break down stereotyping, showing, for example, how the homeless support each other on the lonely streets. Everyone needs to be aware this could happen to anyone if fate is unkind.

“Sadly, many people are still dying on the streets of Manchester and surrounding areas, but we must always work to help people out of poverty and back into society.”

Hugh Everett, from the Friends of Handforth Station (FoHS) who commissioned this arts project, said  “Our projects at the station normally cover railway-based artwork. In this case, we are keen to promote the community aspects of our work, and do what we can to support the less-privileged members of our society.”

Click here to visit The Friends of Handforth Station