Holmepride

On 6th July, one of our very valued and proactive volunteers, Rupert Holroyd will be taking part in a Skydive to raise funds for volunteers to continue our activities around the Holme Valley.

Please support this personal challenge and an opportunity to show your appreciation with a donation no matter the amount, all will be gratefully received and used to continue improvements wherever they are needed.

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/rupert-holroyd

Thank you for your support as ever.

Win. Harrison

Well, what a week it’s been, non stop on the move so no time for moss growing on our shoes.

With the Festival of Folk coming up this weekend starting on Friday, we wanted to make Holmfirth as inviting as we could.

So, on Monday evening we arranged for 24 Honley Beavers together with a dozen parents to litter pick around Sands Rec. on both sides of the River Holme, upto the Holmfirth Cricket Club. This also helped them with earning a Community badge, so a “win – win” for everyone.

Earlier on the same day, plants were collected from Kirklees Polytunnels in Huddersfield after receiving a request for any plants to brighten up the outside of Pattern Principle and Seams So Easy, Victoria Street.
As you may have noticed, Kirklees cuts have meant no bedding plants in Holmside Memorial Garden or the planters around Holmfirth Town Centre. So, businesses need to bring some colour to our streets the best they can and to fill the hanging baskets provided to them free over the past couple of years from Holmepride – Community in Action.

No sign cleaning in this report although requests have been received from Meltham (to clean a few more signs we missed last time out), plus Stocksmoor and Almondbury, both outside the Holme Valley but if we can share what can be done further afield, then it may encourage more people to help in their own villages.

Our next venture out traffic and street name cleaning will be w/c 19th May, so if you know of any road or street names that need a tidy up, this is your opportunity to let us know and can be added to our mental “to do” list.

Tuesday, now this project on a very hot day in the centre of Holmfirth was carried out by Diane and Rupert.

There were two metal rails that looked out of place with all the other improvements happening locally and needed prepping with sanders before getting painted.

These rails ran from the bus terminus up towards Sainsbury’s along the side of the River Holme. Our old friend “black Hammerite” has transformed a “sad looking” to “banging looking”. This has been on the cards to be tackled for quote a while so now “tick” job done and well done guys.

Wednesday, the Primulas we put into the 6 troughs up at the Holme Valley Memorial Hospital Cenotaph suffered after the hot spell. So, even after watering some will need replacing. Additional plants of a different kind (Primulas no longer available) were bought from Hampsons in Wakefield. These will be planted before a gathering at the Cenotaph this Thursday at 11am if anyone wishes to join come along to commemorate VE Day – 8th May.

Thursday, more litter picking was undertaken by Holme Valley (Holmfirth) Thursday Scouts, who litter picked Victoria Park.

More Scouts were going to remove weeds along Hollowgate and along walls on Tuesday this week but due to unforeseen circumstances, this has had to be postponed for later in the season.
Books continue to be fed into the School Street Book Swap Library and it was nice to witness a young boy come along to School Street and tell his Nan “there’s the Library” as he ran upto it, that was so nice to witness.

Oh! we now have an arrangement with The Civic to keep their gardens tidy and lawn cut which was also carried out a week ago on a Sunday morning.

Well, hope you’ve had a great Bank Holiday and enjoy this coming weekends Festival of Folk.

Win & Karen xx

Thankfully the weather was (relatively) kind to us on Sunday 13th April at the top of Holme Moss for our group litter pick.

In total we had 12 volunteers join us which included a few girls from Holmfirth High School who were volunteering as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Bronze award.

We collected a variety of random objects Including a metal car bumper, a plastic sledge and some items of clothing to name a few. We filled 15 bin bags in the space of 1.5 hours which just goes to show how much litter is strewn up there.

A few of our volunteers noticed some larger items which had been fly tipped (furniture and ceramic toilet) these will be reported to Kirklees Council for removal.

All the larger items and bin bags are now safely deposited at the local tip.
Thank you to everyone who gave up their time and came along.

OTHER NEWS

It has taken many months to get the next task over the line as nobody would take ownership of a stone step that came loose between Beatties Deli and Sid’s Cafe. No one would own up to be the owner of the steps ( Kirklees, Parish Council, Church, landlords of businesses within the courtyard). Long story short, Paddy Brook, a local builder by trade, came to the rescue and reset the stone step that came loose. Many thanks Paddy your hard work is much appreciated.

The Church caretaker / warden of the Methodist Church in School Street approached us regarding the state of the Book Swap Library in School Street as the base had become rotten. Our volunteer, Chris Van Dyke, is going to replace the rotting bottom later in the year. This very popular Book Swap Library will be able to be used for many more years to come. Many thanks in advance Chris.

A quick tidy up of the pavement leading to Muslin Hall Garage was undertaken as it was covered with rotting leaves and dead firs from the nearby trees, the road sweeper is unable to get to this part so a quick brush and tidy cleared up the area.

An area which was heavily littered was the banking down Bramble Bank off the main road towards Holmfirth. Carol and John Murphy very kindly offered to litter pick down there, they collected over 50 filled dog poo bags along with 2 very heavy bin bags full of rubbish. Thanks to Carol and John for helping make this area much tidier it is really appreciated.

The signs around the Holme Valley Memorial Hospital were looking a little bit grubby so out came our brush and water to give them a little bit of attention. Whilst there we also noticed an overflowing bin at the side of the memorial which looked rather unsightly next to the new memorial benches. We wrote to our contact at the NHS and this was swiftly emptied 👏 👏

Northern Gas Networks have removed the unsightly graffiti from the green cabinet up by the High School recreation ground. Unfortunately we forgot to take a before picture of the offending item but this has made a big difference.

Last but definitely not least, we received a very kind donation from Jules Whale and her husband recently. Any donations are greatly appreciated and go towards things like plants, new tools or are put towards bigger projects we are working on. Many thanks Jules to you and your husband.

There are plenty more projects we are working on behind the scenes and we will provide you with updates when we have them. A massive thank you to everyone who volunteers and supports us it really means a lot, till next time.