Community News: "The Face of Nantwich" Exhibition Opens at Nantwich Museum

"The Face of Nantwich" exhibition has opened in the Your Space Gallery at Nantwich Museum running until Saturday 14 April. By local artist Cath Kelly and featuring some well known local people, it will be of interest to a wide range of visitors.

Cath Kelly was born in the Nantwich area and has lived locally all her life. After years of raising a family and working in education, she finally found time to turn her attention to her artistic talents, in particular painting exquisite portraits.

The fact that she has not had a formal art training might have added to the unique way she has captured the personality of her subjects. Using oil paint or specialist pencils, she has varied the style to suit each individual, to capture something more than a photograph could portray.

Entry to the exhibition is free. The featured portraits are not for sale but a limited number of commissions may be taken as Cath moves on to future collections of paintings, including equine and local wildlife for ceramic and giftware.

For further information contact Nantwich Museum:
01270 627104
enquiries@nantwichmuseum.org.uk 
nantwichmuseum.org.uk
facebook.com/nantwich.museumoffical
twitter.com/NantwichMuseum

Community News: Free Tickets to Cheshire's Top Attractions - Get Yours Now!

After the success of the first release of free Resident Festival tickets to some of Cheshire and Warrington’s top attractions, hundreds more free tickets will be available to download from today (27th Feb), with another batch available on 8 March. 

The festival, taking place between 17 March – 25 March, is a way of thanking local residents for welcoming more than 62* million tourists into the county each year. The Festival coincides with VisitBritain’s English Tourism Week and is being supported by Cheshire East Council, Cheshire West & Chester Council and Warrington Borough Council.  For tickets and further information, go to visitcheshire.com/cheshireresidentsfestival.

In addition to the existing attractions, tickets are now available for the National Waterways Museum in Ellesmere Port. The museum offers interactive and virtual reality technology to help visitors experience what it would have been like to work on the waterways. The number of tickets available will vary according to the attraction and everyone applying must have either a Cheshire or Warrington postcode.

Brendan Flanagan, Head of Rural and Cultural Economy, Cheshire East Council, said: “There has been huge demand for the Resident Festival tickets and I am delighted. This is a wonderful way to celebrate the county’s tourist industry and recognise the importance of residents. Our residents make a vital contribution to what we can offer and the welcome given to visitors.

“Cheshire East has a great mix of outdoor experiences, unique events and high-quality experiences. We look forward to welcoming residents from across the county to enjoy sites like the world-famous Jodrell Bank, Nantwich Museum and the Silk Museum. Residents can also visit magnificent gardens like the Jacobean splendour of Macclesfield’s Capesthorne Hall and Gardens, the quintessentially English gardens of Arley Hall and the award-winning gardens of Tatton Park.”

“As a local resident it is sometimes easy to think that because you’ve been to an attraction some years ago, it won’t have changed.  But Our top attractions are always thinking of new ways of engaging visitors and offering new experiences. For instance, we are delighted that this January, Jodrell Bank applied for the outstanding prestigious UNESCO World Heritage Status.

Elsewhere, attractions that are opening their doors to Cheshire residents include industrial gems like the ‘Cathedral of the Canals’, the Anderton Boat Lift; Port Sunlight Museum, Congleton Museum; Tarporley’s Cotebrook Shire Horse Centre and Sandbach’s fully working pottery, the Potters Barn.

Katrina Michel, chief executive of Marketing Cheshire, said: “This is a great chance for Cheshire residents to have a great free day out and celebrate the amazing tourist attractions on our doorstep. We hope as many residents as possible join in the fun.” 

For further information contact:  Fiona Young at 01244 851867 or at f.young@marketingcheshire.co.uk

*VisitBritain/VisitEngland plays a unique role in building England’s tourism product, raising Britain’s profile worldwide, increasing the volume and value of tourism exports and developing England and Britain’s visitor economy.

Working with a wide range of partners in both the UK and overseas, its mission is to grow the volume and value of inbound tourism across the nations and regions of Britain and to develop world-class English tourism product to support our growth aspirations.

Tourism is currently worth £127 billion to Britain’s economy and as Britain’s seventh largest export industry, inbound tourism’s economic contribution is currently valued at £26.2 billion.

Revamped Cheese Room Opens at Nantwich Museum

Let Mr & Mrs Mouse and their family guide you through the local history of cheese making

Thanks to a generous grant from Nantwich estate agents Baker Wynne & Wilson, the Cheese Room at Nantwich Museum has been redecorated and redesigned. 

A team of volunteers, led by Museum Manager Kate Dobson, cleaned and repainted the room and researched and designed new display boards plus labels for a wide range of artefacts. 

Kate praised their work commenting: "The project was only made possible as a result of the hard work and dedication of a group of volunteers".

Mr and Mrs Mouse and their family help to guide visitors through the information panels, which describe the history of local cheesemaking. A timeline identifies when at one time the Navy only used Cheshire cheese, the first dairy school was established and the first annual cheese show in Nantwich took place which went on to become the most important cheese show in the country.

The secrets of making Cheshire cheese are revealed through the displays and a film illustrating the supply of milk from Higher Farm, Byley to local cheese maker Joseph Heler Ltd.

The range of artefacts brings the display to life and includes a milk cooler, churns, cheese vat, curd mill and cheese press. Of particular note, and in pride of place, is the magnificent silver Dutton Cup presented in 1895 to farmer John Dutton by the Cheshire Dairy Farmers Association at Nantwich Dairy Show.

Throughout the exhibition the Mouse family pose questions about cheesemaking and the exhibits, whilst visitors can also test their knowledge of cow breeds!

Admission is free to the museum and exhibition.  For further information:

Email: enquiries@nantwichmuseum.org.uk 
Phone: 01270 627104
Website: www.nantwichmuseum.org.uk
Facebook: facebook.com/nantwich.museumoffical
Twitter: @NantwichMuseum

OUT AND ABOUT BLOG: It's Begnning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Friday will be 1st December so I officially have an excuse to talk about Christmas! Put your hand up if you're ready for it?

OK, so I may not be ready for Christmas but I am actually looking forward to it. I will be cooking for 13 people and each time I mention that to anyone, I am reliably informed we need to put a teddy at the table to make it 14! Either I have never cooked for 13 or this is a Cheshire thing and being a southerner, I have never heard of this superstition before. Either way, Jasper our dog now has an excuse to sit at the table with us!

Local Christmas Markets

This weekend you will find me at the Richmond Village Traditional Christmas Markets with two hats on: I will be blasting out the Christmas tunes from the RedShift van whilst also manning my Tropic Skincare stand in the warmth of the main building. Please do pop along and buy some lovely unique gifts and enjoy a mulled wine, or three, whilst browsing.

Also this weekend there is a Christmas market in Nantwich and the ETSY handmade market at Reaseheath so really there is no excuse to not at least start your shopping!

Red Hair, Red Dress Affair

Last week I ventured up to Knutsford to attend my dear friend Sue France’s “Red Hair, Red Dress Affair” event at the Courthouse. Sue runs a fantastic ladies' networking group called Creative Connecting in Cheshire. We had a lovely meal and listened to a great guest speaker called Nikki Pattinson, an inspirational woman who gave a hilarious, moving and insightful speech. The event raised over £700 for a charity called Gift of a Wedding, an incredible charity that stages weddings within weeks, or even days, for terminally sick people.

I met Sue France on 6th September 2010, the day RedShift began broadcasting and we have been friends ever since. Her events (ladies only, sorry chaps) are always unique and well attended with business women from across Cheshire and Sue has been such a wonderful support and encourager to me over the last seven years.

South Cheshire Chamber Business Awards

Friday night saw me hosting the South Cheshire Chamber Business Awards for the 7th year, and 5th year with my fabulous co-host Paul Boniface.

Paul and I both love this event and seeing how much it has grown in size and calibre of entrants and finalists over the years is great. I am looking forward to hosting the Chamber Awards radio show this Friday from 10am - 2pm with all the winners and sponsors so please do tune in at www.redshiftonline.org.

Back to the Future Project

A quick mention for our Back-to-the-Future inter-generational project again. We are looking for people over 70 to join us on Saturday 9th December from 2-4pm at Nantwich Museum. We will be making Christmas table decorations and singing carols by candlelight. We have several young people booked on and we have four spaces for under 20 year olds and seven spaces for over 70 year olds. To book onto this fun and free inter-generational project, please call 01270 440 750.

Volunteer of the Week
My choice for Volunteer of the Week has to be the lovely Paul Boniface who has been with us for six years. Paul presents Easy Like Sunday Morning and really does put his heart and soul into it. He plans his show theme, features and songs so carefully and he has a loyal following of regular listeners.

Paul’s commitment to, and support of, RedShift goes far beyond producing and presenting his show.

Paul frequently supports me at events and over the last six months he has raised an incredible £3,464 as part of the #ClimbKili2017 campaign, a quarter of which will be coming to RedShift to support our youth activities.

Thank you Paul!

Out & About: Respect to My Ancestors on Remembrance Day

Liz looks back at her family's roles in wartime and appeals for Poppy sellers for next year
I am writing this on a very chilly Sunday evening in front of a roaring fire watching Countryfile as they tour our fabulous countryside sharing news of projects to support our veterans across the UK.

Remembrance Day

Remembrance is always an important time for me. It is a time that I give extra thought and consideration to my ancestors who fought in each of the World Wars. My Grandpa, who passed away in August aged 95, spent time in Italy and Egypt whilst my Grandma was stationed at Bletchley Park as a De-coder. My Great-Grandfather was awarded the Military Cross (MC) and a Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in the First World War.
Thankfully, my late Dad spent years putting together our family history and in more recent years, Grandpa and I spent hours recording interviews and capturing his memories on audio. I am now working on migrating all of my Dad’s work onto a new website along with Grandpa’s recordings as I think it is so important to remember and for my nephews, the next generation, to learn also.

Back to the Future

This is where the inspiration for our inter-generational “Back to the Future” project came from and on Saturday 9 December we will hold our second of four events welcoming people under 20 and over 70 to come together to make friends and learn from each other.
Please do get in touch if you would like to join this project as we have a lovely Christmas afternoon planned at the Nantwich Museum. We will be making Christmas table decorations with our newest Community Hub member, florist Janet Wright and we will enjoy some Christmas treats and a short sing-song, all funded by Cheshire Community Foundation. Find out more on our Facebook event page: facebook.com/events/142312076523924.

Selling Poppies

I have been able to make time in my diary to help with the Poppy Appeal and I thoroughly enjoyed a couple of shifts up at Bridgemere with volunteers from the local Royal British Legion. I know the Legion are keen to recruit more Poppy sellers for next year so please do consider this as a very practical way to help. Anyone interested in helping in the next Poppy Appeal should contact the Poppy Appeal Organiser, Bea Rigby on 01270 651160 or email beatricerigby@aol.com.
I met some really lovely people, including one lady who had a collection of Poppies spanning 40 years! The photo at the top this week is of Elaine King (who celebrated her birthday selling Poppies) and Janet Thompson who came up from Northampton to lend a hand. Even Jasper my dog joined in modelling the reflective Poppies that hang on zips (or dog collars!)
Remembrance was wrapped up for Michael-John and me with a service at St Margaret's Church in Wrenbury, and then hot-footing it over to Nantwich to see the wreath-laying procession. Always a moving sight and proud to see my nephew Ben parading in his Cub’s uniform, something I used to love as a Brownie and then of these willAir Cadet.

Volunteer of the Week

I am launching a new feature this week called Volunteer of the Week. This is a short introduction and thank you to our volunteers, some of whom are from RedShift and some from the wider community.
My first one is THANK YOU to Kelly-Ann Jones who has been a wonderful addition to the RedShift team since being a guest on our “Teachers News” show about six years ago.
Kell is one of our volunteers who often goes above and beyond: she helps me with our outdoor events (pictured here as “Witchy-Kell at Wistaston Fireworks), training new presenters and she presents a great Sunday afternoon show called Wellbeing Weekly.
Aside from RedShift, Kell teaches at Adelaide School and is also very involved with the Scouts and specifically the Crewe Gang Show. As volunteer marketing coordinator for the Scouts, I know Kell would love to hear from any local business who could sponsor the very special 80th anniversary which comes to the Lyceum in May 2018.

The Floorman

My final shout out this week is to John Sims our lovely floorman. We have been having some work done on the house and in order not to hold up our builders, John kindly gave up his whole weekend to finish our dining room floor. He has been here for 10 hours today (Sunday) and we are so grateful and not to mention, thrilled with the result! Thank you John. If anyone is looking for a new floor, please contact John on 07711 129 920.
Please look out for my "Out and About" page each week in the Crewe Chronicle. For more information about any of the items in this article, please email us here at RedShift or call us on 01270 440 750.

This article appeared in Crewe Chronicle on 15th November 2017.

Railway Sign Returns Home

The Nantwich Market Drayton Junction sign from the signal box which used to control that railway junction has returned to Nantwich after almost 50 years and is now displayed at the museum. Donated to the museum by Jeremy Nicholls, whose family have cared for the sign for the last 48 years it features cast iron letters on a wooden background and has been restored to its original LNWR colours.

It was early in 1969, when the 15 years old Jeremy woke one Sunday morning to see a demolition gang dismantling the signal box. It had become redundant when the line to Market Drayton and Wellington closed in May 1967. As a standard LNWR cabin, it was constructed of wood on a brick base and the demolition of the superstructure did not take long.  Jeremy asked the foreman if he could have one of the name boards and was told "yes, if he could carry it off". A friend helped him carry the board the few hundred yards to his home.

Jeremy had the board restored four years ago and says "I'm delighted that it's now back in Nantwich, where it belongs and that, thanks to the museum, others will be able to see the sign and perhaps learn something of Nantwich's railway past".

A Research Booklet "Nantwich Railways" written by Jeremy Nicholls is available from the museum shop. Its describes how the Nantwich Market Drayton Junction signal box was located about 100 metres west of the bridge over the River Weaver where the Wellington line parted from the Shrewsbury line. It was the most complex of the signal boxes at Nantwich having contact with those at Wrenbury, Shrewbridge Road Crossing and Hack Green.