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Acklam Clean-up - Monday April 10th, 10.00 am During the Winter the Forces of Ignorance
had gained the upper hand in the Avenue of Trees. We met to clean up the
Avenue of Trees and managed a sweep through West Wood and down Hall Drive. The Probation Service
turned out to help us and the Council removed the rubbish we collected -- some 30-40 black bags
together with some assorted ironmongery. A very worthwhile effort. Our thanks to all who took part.
We seem to have been telling you about our Acklam Heritage CD-ROM forever and we are
pleased, finally, to announce that we launched on March 23rd (2005) at Acklam Hall to a
small invited audience. This was followed by a launch to the community at the
Community Council meeting in May where we demonstrated some of the wonders of the CD-ROM and
also demonstrated conclusively how indispensable computers are if one wishes to mess up a
presentation.
This is the culmination of 2 years hard slog involving numerous experts and (we think) the
result is stupendous. On one disc you are able to discover the history of Acklam through
its buildings, its people, its great hall and grounds together with a guide to the ecology
of our area. The whole project is lavishly illustrated with beautiful photography.
Copies of the CD-ROM were made available to the town's public libraries, museums and to Acklam
schools. Personal copies are also available to purchase in the libraries and
museums or from Acklam 2020.
Newsletter for January 2008
Newsletter for September 2007
Newsletter for May 2004
Newsletter for May 2006
The Acklam Heritage CD-ROM
See the section 'Acklam Heritage CD-ROM' for more details"
The Hanging Baskets Project
This project was funded by Acklam Community Council and Middlesbrough Council and repeated
our first foray into the world of hanging baskets last year. A series of workshops was
held in which children from two secondary schools and two primary schools in our area
assembled hanging baskets under the expert guidance of Middlesbrough's Parks
Department. The baskets will be displayed and tended at the schools and shops
of the area. A final session was held for residents to assemble baskets to
display in front of their own homes. The intention was to help brighten up
Acklam -- we do hope you notice. (The weather this year was not kind, so the photographs
are those of last year's event).
In 2007, with some sadness, we decided not to repeat the hanging baskets events. We found that
the efforts we put in to organise the baskets were not matched by some of the recipients in
looking after them. Dying flowers in public places are worse than no flowers at all.
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A big thank you to all of you who supported our bid for the 'People's Millions' Grant which, if successful, would have enabled us to start restoring this much loved area in our local landscape [the Avenue of trees]. We are committed to seek funding from other sources.
The concert at Acklam Hall with the Apollo Choir proved to be a wonderful success. All who attended were delighted with the tremendous support for this 'Celebration of Acklam Hall in our Community' event. The music was briliant, the choir enjoyed themselves and the support of musicians from Hallgarth school during the interval was much appreciated.
'Tea at the Hall' was held on Saturday September 8th. The group worked extemely hard preparing for this event. Cooking vast numbers of cakes and scones for an unknown number of visitors was a worry. Would we have enough scones? Had we brought enough milk? We soon found out. We had a wonderful turn out of about 600 people and we 'worked our socks off' for around 7 hours. A very tiring but rewarding day.
As the future of Acklam Hall continues to be so uncertain, the opportunity to show as many people as possible inside this beautiful building seems increasingly important. Time might be running out!
The group had a big clean-up in the week before Easter. The 'grot-spots' were tackled: namely the Avenue of Trees, the fence by St David's School, West Wood and Hall Drive. There are other areas that need attention, particularly the shrubbery by Hustler Foundation changing rooms. We were ably supported by the Probation Service and Middlesbrough Council's Street Scene Dept.
We planted wild flower plugs in the long grass area adjacent to East Wood two weeks ago. We hope this will not only improve the appearance of the longer grass, but will also encourage insects and butterflies to the area.