Gawsworth celebrates kindness, community and goodwill

Above image: Standing L to R – Daryl Williams, Pauline Fawcett, Jan Tetlow, Geoff Parkin, Ray Shaw; seated (middle row)  Linda Dolan, Christine Lockitt, Janet Trueman, Carol Hulme, Margaret Parkin; seated ( front) Val Shaw, Joyce Venables. Photograph by Alan Bardsley

If there’s one thing we have all learned over recent difficult times, it is that community matters.

In Gawsworth there are 17 people who personify this – and have now been celebrated for their dedication to a unique venture – which has cheerfully served the community for over ten years.

Gawsworth Community Shop has grown from a pop-up shop in 2011, to a well-loved community-owned resource, managed by volunteers and open seven days a week. 

The shop, which provided a lifeline for locals throughout lockdown, has expanded – thanks to the National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund – into a Community Hub comprising Shop, Café and Meeting Place.

The grant has also helped fund adaptations to allow wider access to all.

Friends and neighbours meet there, take part in community activities and those working at home can take a break and have a chat over a pot of tea.

Popular with families, hikers, cyclists, and dog walkers, Gawsworth Hub has become a destination in itself for a wide range of visitors to the heart of this picturesque village.

All this takes huge effort to deliver – and last weekend the Hub directors raised a glass to seventeen of this remarkable 50-strong band. A band which includes three married couples, who have given a combined total of over 26,500 hours of their time to make Gawsworth Hub what it is today: a thriving community resource, run by volunteers who enjoy their commitment to neighbourliness and goodwill.  

Chairperson of the Society Neil Phillips, (himself a long serving 10-year achiever), presented the group with Certificates of Achievement and gifts of specially commissioned ’10 years a Volunteer’ coasters – crafted by local ceramicists Moorlands Pottery – to commemorate a Decade of Service to their community endeavour.