Tag: arts and crafts

by Stephen Chandler

Being part of an active and friendly group

LRG member and owner of Chandlers Hairdressing, Stephen Chandler tells of his passion for the stage.

For the past five years I’ve been an active member of the North Manchester Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society (NMAODS).

We’ve just finished out latest production, The Vicar of Dibley, Love and Marriage, which ran for four nights (and one matinee) to coincide with this year’s Comic Relief.

For this show I was part of the backroom crew but I’ve also had acting parts in our versions of Faulty Towers and ’Allo, ’Allo.

It’s not the first time we’ve followed the adventures of vicar Geraldine and Alice the verger. We first covered the sitcom in 2014.

The original, starring Dawn French and Emma Chambers, was first shown on the BBC in November 1994 and ran for over three years, with a number of ‘specials’ after that. It was written by Richard Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer. Curtis is well known for comedy films, Love Actually, Bridget Jones and Notting Hill. His TV hits include Mr Bean and Blackadder.

I’m really enjoying being part of such an active society and friendly group and must thank our director Vanessa Randall and chairman David Gordon for that.

In 2019 the North Manchester Amateur Operatic and Dramatic Society will be 100 years old. We were created from the merger of the Harpurhey Dramatic Society and the Simpson Memorial Tennis Club.

Our home, since 1919, has been the Simpson Memorial Hall on Moston Lane which was originally built from money from the estate of William Simpson, a wealthy local silk manufacturer.

Its original objective was to ‘promote the benefit of the inhabitants of Moston and neighbouring districts by associating with the local authorities, voluntary organisations and inhabitants to advance education and to provide facilities for recreation and with the object of improving the conditions of life for the said inhabitants.’

And with NMAODS we’re continuing to do just that.

If you’d like to join us, or get information on our forthcoming productions, visit www.nmaods.com

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by Barbara Shaw

“It sounds like something from the Wild West.”

Barbara from Creative Community recounts a typical Wednesday arts and crafts session at The Miners.

It’s Wednesday morning and the group are getting ready to start. We are down on numbers today, there is a nasty bug going round which has hit a few of us pretty hard.

Some of the group are already knitting, the rest look at today’s project: a card of flowers that will be suitable for Mother’s Day, a birthday, or a get well soon card.

Some of us talk about Event City and how disappointed we were with the Hobby Crafts show last week. Despite this we came away with bargains and will probably go to the next one.

Ill health becomes the topic of conversation and one of the members says that she swears by ‘Pulmo Baileys’. There’s a stunned silence because no one else has heard of it.

We’re all intrigued by this weird-sounding medicine. “It sounds like something from the Wild West,” someone says. Wonder if anyone will be brave enough to go and buy some!

The nice thing about our group is the variety of conversations. No one knows where we’re going with our chatter but it certainly is diverse and invariably we will learn something new.

By now lunch is being served. We don’t go down to the cafe, our food is brought to us by our resident chef Matthew. Today’s hot pot looks particularly good, as does the meat pie and chips and the all day breakfast.

With food in front of us the conversation turns to school dinners and what our mums gave us as kids: mashed eggs with soldiers, bananas on toast or with custard.

Someone fondly remembers the weekly spoon of cod liver oil, and whilst half the group lick their lips at the memory, the rest of us grimace. That’s obviously one you either love or hate.

“Do you remember eating coal when you were pregnant?” someone asks.

“What does it taste like?”

“COAL!” shouts someone else from across the table, which makes us laugh.

The cards are nearly finished now, it’s always amazing how different each one looks and everyone is pleased with their end result. It’s nice to have time for yourself with good friends.

Creative Community was formed for local people wishing to take part and learn new skills in creative activities such as card-making, knitting, etc.

The group is open to all and also has a very good understanding of mental health issues.

Not everyone who attends takes part in an activity, some just come for a cup of tea and a chat.

Our group is friendly and welcoming and meets at The Miners Community Arts and Music Centre, Moston every Wednesday from 11am till 3pm and the cost for this session is £2.

Here’s our Facebook page.

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by Len Grant

From fabrication engineer to community hub hero

“This one’s got bits of chorizo and smoked cheese,” says Louis showing me one of his pies in the community café. “It’s a bit misshaped, but it’s all there. Very rustic.”

Louis Beckett has been running The Miners Community Arts and Music Centre for nearly seven years.

Back in the day this single-story building off St Mary’s Road was a washroom for the local pit. Then it became a working men’s club until it closed in the early 90s.

Louis has in fingers in so many pies, I’m finding it difficult to pin him down. “As well as running this place, you’re also an artist, aren’t you?”

“I like being creative in whatever I do,” he says, pulling the pie-heater away from the kitchen wall so he can clean it. “Even with my cooking. But I have to do all sorts running this place. One minute I’m the cellar man, the next I’m taking bookings for gigs.

“But I do like to think of myself as an artist, although by trade I’m a welder, a fabrication engineer.” I must have pulled a puzzled face. “I know, it’s a bit weird.”

“I loved art as a kid. I started off at St Thomas More School in Miles Platting before I moved to the High School of Art in Cheetham Hill. That was great. It was much more creative than it was academic.

“When I was 12 or 13 I had a job as a butcher’s boy for Yates’s Butchers on Tib Street, next to the Wine Lodge. When I turned 16, the butcher – Norman Dixon – offered me a full time job.

“Really I wanted to be an architect but my dad said no, I had to get a ‘proper job’ rather than go on to college and university. I didn’t want to be a butcher so I went looking for another job. Bolton Brady Industrial Doors and Shutters in Ancoats was taking on apprentices and I went there and learnt the bench. Engineering was a semi-skilled job and I loved fabricating with metal.”

“Were you annoyed with your dad for not letting you follow your passion?”

“I suppose so, but that’s parents, isn’t it?”

“When Bolton Bradys shut down I got a series of jobs in small fabrication workshops, a few years at a time, until they shut down and I was laid off.

“In my 30s I went back to college and did A-levels in Fine Art and Design. And then I applied to Huddersfield University to do a BA Honours degree in Fine Art.

I took just three paintings to the interview and sat and talked to the people on the panel. They listened to what I had to say, looked at my work and said, right, you’re in. “But I couldn’t afford to go. It was full time for three years. So I went back into fabrication for another five years.”

continued in: The Miners: an oasis in a desert of closed venues and dwindling resources

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