Sticklebacks and Swingboats

Holme Valley Sharing Memories is an inspirational group of older people, in their 80s and 90s, who use the arts to celebrate their life stories. The majority of our group members live alone and experience social isolation but being part of Sharing Memories helps to connect them with their community.

We have our base at Hope Bank Works, a former pleasure park near Huddersfield (between 1896 and 1955). The story of Hope Bank Pleasure Grounds is a wonderful one and we were lucky enough to get Heritage Lottery Funding in 2016 to hold an Open Day and capture people's verbatim postwar memories of Hope Bank and make a film.

We now want to take these memories and turn them into a theatrical promenade, a new song cycle, an animated film and visual art work to share the incredible story of Hope Bank with our wider community.

We have already raised nearly £6,500 towards the cost of this project and are currently submitting an application to Arts Council England. Your donation would go towards the cost of taxis to transport our members to their weekly sessions and room hire (total £2020). Working with older people, primary school children, teenagers with learning difficulties and other adults we will stage a spectacular Open Day for young and old in July 2018. And if you live in the Huddersfield area you could even get involved in the performance yourself!

For many of our group members attending Sharing Memories is the only social activity they participate in each week so please consider supporting us in this ambitious project.