Park pavilion gets a new lease of life
04 Jun 2019 ARCHIVED (over 3 months old) - view latest news
A century old park near Prudhoe has had its pavilion brought back into use thanks to a real partnership effort.
The park at Eastwood Road in West Wylam has existed since 1919 and has been a popular and well used amenity for the area ever since.
The play area in front of the building was redeveloped in late 2017 in a partnership between Northumberland County Council and Prudhoe Town Council, at a cost of £80,000.
Since then the Friends of Eastwood Park have been granted a lease on the old bowls pavilion by the county council, so they can transform it into a community hub which includes a dog friendly café, toilet facilities, community activity room and storage for sports equipment for use in the park.
To support the group in renovating and bringing the building into use the County Council provided £17,000 from its Parks Enhancement Programme to install utilities and repair the fabric of the building, while local county councillors Ken Stow and Gordon Stewart contributed a further £3,000.
The work has involved providing new wiring and water supplies to the building, along with work to repair the ceilings and toilets.
This enabled the Friends group to redecorate the building and bring in donations and grant money for kitchen equipment, crockery, a new kitchen window and furniture. The building, now called The Miner’s Lamp cafe and community hub, has now re-opened 40 years after it was built.
The cafe was officially opened by County Councillor Gordon Stewart and the Children of Addderlane Academy.
Since opening, the cafe, supported by Asda Fareshare scheme, has been well attended and filled with artifacts and pictures of old West Wylam and the pit community. It has a meeting room for community use; a store of sports equipment for use at the nearby games area so visitors can try a range of sports and get fit for free. There are public toilets and a branch of West Northumberland’s Food Bank.
Funds are now being raised by Friends of Eastwoods Park to support installation of disabled accessible facilities to the building. Picnic tables are also shortly to be installed by the county council, along with works to remove the old play equipment and spoil heap.
The county council has also been getting work underway this spring to extend and improve the football facilities at the old cricket pavilion.
Prudhoe South County Councillor Gordon Stewart said: “I am delighted that after 20 years of inaction the park is being brought back into life for the benefit of the whole community, offering a wide range of sporting and leisure opportunities’
Head Teacher Emma Potts said. “The children and staff of Adderlane Academy were honoured to be asked to open the new Miners Lamp Cafe.
“This is a park our children use regularly and for this provision to be improved further is great for the community. This is an amazing facility where children can play safely while the grown ups enjoy a cuppa and slice of beautiful cake!”
Russ Greig, from the Friends of Eastwoods park committee, added: “I will be managing the cafe and hopefully working with volunteers.
“The plan is to work with people with learning difficulties or the long-term unemployed, to help them develop social skills and help get them back into working life.
“There is also a community room, which is used for classes.”
Cabinet Member for Environment and Local Services Councillor Glen Sanderson added: “The regeneration of this park continues to go from strength to strength and we’re delighted the partnership approach to improving facilities here has been such a success.”