From the beginning of 2010 members of the group campaigned hard for people to give it their surplus apples and more than 150 residents responded. From late August they took apples to Eddisbury Fruit Farm each week. Everyone who donated apples received a free bottle of juice.
By the end of the season 1,820 bottles of juice had been produced from more than 3.2 tons of apples that would otherwise simply go onto compost heaps or in the bin.
The juice was sold through community events and farmers’ markets, cafes and restaurants, the Tourist Information Centre and local food shops. Profits from the apple juice will help the group to plant four apple trees in each of the schools in Congleton.
Congleton Apple Juice was joint winner in the Environment and Culture category of the North Action for Market Towns Awards.
This community-based project has successfully turned a 19th Century Grade II listed corn exchange into a centre for arts, culture and heritage to serve Diss and its surrounding villages.
The project came out of a presentation by De Facto, a project management company, at the AMT Convention at Hexham in 2005. De Facto were then appointed to look into the possibility of using Diss Corn Hall as an arts centre and to provide a project plan for Diss Town Council to follow.
The Hall, owned by the council, had been little used, was a drain on the ratepayer and in danger of permanent closure. In July 2009 the charitable Diss Corn Hall Trust was established. The town council agreed a long lease from the beginning of 2010 at a peppercorn rent and to transfer the management of the hall to the trust. Since January 2010, the trust has developed a regular, high quality and imaginative programme of music, theatre, cinema, comedy, dance, exhibitions and community events to appeal to all generations and tastes.
The trust is now seeking funds to carry out the redevelopment of the hall, costing some £2.4m, based on the plans drawn up in 2010. Diss Corn Hall Refurbishment won the Social and Community category of the East Action for Market Towns Awards.
Renaissance Knaresborough wanted to illustrate the rich heritage of Knaresborough with an audio tour that could be downloaded from the internet.
The project was a great opportunity to involve pupils at King James’s School through its extra-curriculum Enterprise Group.
The pupils, aged between 13 and 16, worked on the project in their own time for around a year, meeting weekly at lunchtimes.
They invited a local historian, who gives guided historical walks around the town, to act as their mentor. Each pupil then investigated a different aspect of the town and - after going on a historic walk themselves - identified which they wanted to include and ordered them into a structured walk.
Each pupil wrote and recorded the script for his or her own element of the tour. The finished audio tour was edited and prepared for downloading on to MP3 players, such as i-pods.
A professional designer worked with the pupils on a leaflet to promote and accompany the audio tour. The final element was to create a website to carry the audio downloads:
www.knaresboroughaudiotours.info.
ENVIRONMENT & CULTURE 05
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