Maggie

This is a good source of funding for all of you out there who have a new idea for a project which will be run within the Big Local area. It is easy to apply for and comes with lots of help to run a successful project from Louise and her team. And I should also stress that this funding pot is extra to our £1,000,000, which is secure and will not be touched until we have all agreed on how, where and why it should be spent.

Thanks very much Simon. Its been a lot of hard work and I am shattered, but worth it, and really this is where it all starts from. Remember we will always make a place for any displays of old photographs from Gobowen (I have noticed you were collecting these). I personally would like to start thinking about a display about transport, because Oswestry has been key place in an important route way since at least the iron age. Coach-routes, Telfords A5, canals, railways, roads, engineering developments in Oswestry (rolling stock for railways but also busses)... could tell a very interesting story.

According to a site called Clonehenge at http://replicahenge.wordpress.com, The stone circle in Temple Wood is the earliest replica of Stonehenge. The site documents over 70 other replica stonehenge's around the world. I thought that this was very interesting, yet again we lead the world! http://replicahenge.wordpress.com/2008/12/20/major-wests-stonehenge-built-c-1830/

Does anyone else think it would be a really good idea to have a section for Bronygarth? There is such a lot going on up there just now it would make sense to have special place for them and we could find out about activities like After Offa in one place.

Today we had speeches and council and tea and cake in the new museum. It was a triumph that we pulled off in a short time with just volunteers and things that local people have lent to us...But come along and see what you think. This is OUR museum, it will continue to change and grow, so the museum team need your input, what you know, what you have that could be shown to others (local collections of stuff), and if you could get involved as a volunteer.

We have put the seminar reports in the brand new sales cabinet in the brand new museum in the Guildhall in Oswestry.. Open on Friday. Museum policy is that if a community heritage group supports the museum (help, volunteers, loan of display material) then the museum will sell their books and booklets and any other suitable products with all money raised going back to the group. All the museum asks for is a small donation. Seems very fair.

Reminder Canal Etchings exhibition opens in the Qube on Friday. (see calendar) Come and fund out about the sculptures that will be going in Chirk Bank later on in the summer.

Canal Sculptures 'Canal Etchings' by Jason Hicklin exhibition opens in the Qube on Friday. (see calendar for detail). When the new car park opens in Gledrid this summer we are getting one of these to be sited at the end of the car park as a 'Gateway' to the World Heritage Centre.

(I know half of Gledrid isn't in our parishes, but Hey ho!)

Oswestry Museum looking good today. Lots of shiny new display cases are quickly filling up with stuff. We might not have had any time to do fancy interpretation, but it is amazing what local people are bringing in for display and I am now confident that the opening is going to be a great success. A year ago the guys in Oswestry Heritage Forum meetings promised that Oswestry would finally have a town museum and the promise has been kept, thanks to the town council, a market towns initiative grant and lots of hard work. I haven't been this tired since I was a student and burning the candle at both ends. Exhibitions from the 3 parishes area include: Ifton Mine photographs The Orthopaedic Hospital Welsh Guards Museum (Park Hall) Old Oswestry Hillfort Battle of Crogen (we have the film that was made by this project) and what I suppose we should call an eclectic collection of stuff. Thats not counting all the things from other areas around Oswestry I was amazed today to see an enormous billboard advertising the split up and sale of the Quinta Estate. This is been part of the Oswestry Library Collection and has been loaned to us. Please join us on Friday and help us celebrate an exciting new venture in the area.Open 10 a.m. Friday 2nd March, then we will be open on Wednesday Friday and Saturday (10-5) for definite and try to be open on Thursdays once we get more volunteers. The museum is Free to enter, and is run entirely by volunteers with running costs from any grants or contributions we can get. Very definitely run by the community for the community but with enormous support from the Town Council who have given us the rooms rent free for 5 years. WHILE YOU ARE IN TOWN ALSO CATCH THE EXHIBITION IN THE QUBE Jason Hicklin: An Etcher in the Landscape. We are having 2 of these sculptures in Chirk Bank. I think they are very beautiful, but see what you think. (2nd March-2nd April)

This academic year the school have made the main entrance for children being dropped off and picked up on the Station Road side. This has improved congestion by spreading the load of parked cars round onto both roads and keeping the junction clearer. The school also does 'walking bus' to and fro. It doesn't alter the fact that too many people need to drive their children to and from school.

Big Local Steering group Meeting this afternoon, and projects that would help sustainable development in our area were looked at. This included lift sharing. There is a national 'dating' organisation whose web site matches people doing the same journeys, so that they can share transport (and thus cut down on CO2 emissions/ profligate burning of finite oil resources etc etc.) Have had a quick look and there are lift sharing possibilities in our area. It seems to be aimed at regular commuting for work. Here is the link to the lift share site; http://www.liftshare.com/. There are sites, under the same umbrella, for Welsh lifts www.carsharewales.com and for Shropshire there is www.carpoolworld.com This is all well and good and addresses fuel sustainability for frequent journeys. However there is also a need for one-off lifts into nearest town for shops/doctors etc, or in the evenings for activities in villages which do not have good public transport links. I am just throwing this out there for discussion. I've no idea of solutions and suspect that there are several things that could be done to help people cut back on car journeys. What do people think? Can anyone come up with a plan that can help with this?

Big Local photos now on Flickr account, called Gobowen, St Martins and Weston Rhyn Big Local; and here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1919594@N23/

Parish Council usually discuss this at meetings. Its a continuing problem. Last month I suggested a 20 mph speed limit past school and up through village would make things safer. Think that there are some good ideas from people on this site., so people why not come along to the next Parish Council meeting and ask about this in the public question time? Our County Councillors can then take the issues up with the county highways officers and the police. Next meeting is March 12th at 7 p.m. in the Institutute.

We now need to get more people involved; it worked better at first with just a few who were pulling together all the ideas from the villages, but now decisions will have to start to be made so that means everyone should have a say. In short, yes please come if you can and be prepared to join in. (I will be the one quietly snoring in the corner because I have been working solidly for over a week on preparing for the Oswestry Museum Opening and I am so so tired)

Do you still work with 3D scanners and printers? Can you use 3D scans to make rubber moulds and then go low tech and make plaster of paris models? Just think though, you could go to your nearest 3D printshop and order something over the internet, have it emailed back after paying with Paypal, then print out your set of cups and saucers or whatever. Digital Revolution...where will it all end? A question was asked at that conference...'Do you think the internet will be around in 20 years time? When everyone said yes, the response was 'well that's what they said about the steam engine'.

http://paper.li/Projectbook/heritage-sector# This is an interesting read, new version every day; today reports on 3D printer big enough to print out a house! Wow.

I've put the agenda for the next Big Local meeting on the calendar, for Monday 27th 2 p.m. in St Martins Centre. From stuff in Shrops Star looks like there might be a few people turning up who want to get involved with decision making process, so this is a reminder to everyone who wants to participate!

Crikey moses I seem to like everything... call me sweetness and light.

I would like to say a really big thank you to Lee and this site for talking me through how to set up a twitter account and post my first tweet, Guys that's the sort of thing that works very well via the chat room on this site. In the last 3 months I have been dragged into the new media world and community-online has been the catalyst and the support to enable me to go for it. :)

Agnes Hunt was what she called a cripple, and this is what probably led to her being such an amazing innovator, she believed very strongly that injured and disabled and limbless people should be integrated into the community (whilst most other places hid damaged people away from public view) and she obviously never let her gammy leg get in the way of anything. Come along to the opening of Oswestry Museum on 2nd March and find out more about this amazing lady. There are photos of her nurses riding motorbikes (in long skirts) and some rare objects from the early history of orthopaeadics, (made of leather and straps and buckles which look like bondage gear). .