It's been a funny old year. Ending on a significant turning point, or so we hope. The arrival of our Stoneface Creative Sleeping Giant was a hugely proud moment, that so many of our community came to help build his body was really lovely. We had help with supplies from Chameleon Landscaping, Birley Moor Garden Centre and Hall Seasons Artificial Grass, for which we are very grateful.
We held our summer Fun Day at The Lodge, Church Lane, Hackenthorpe on 17th August. Thank you to Gail Smith for the use of the site. It made such a difference to have normal amenities, like toilets, running water and electricity. If only we had such things at the Spa! It was a great day with lots of visitors. We had children drawing pictures of the Giant and making suggestions for his name. There were various stalls, Belly Dancers, a brilliant young singer, Hollie Rose, and two of the Asda Community Champions charging around as Dinosaurs!  We held our sixth Heritage Open Days Event. 16 Talks and Tours around 200 visitors. We had camera crews from both the National and Local HODs, filming us, very exciting! Feedback from the event below.
Our Halloween event was great fun, spooktastic even! Lots of lovely ghoulish people came and it was positively frightful! If you would like to be part of the team for Halloween next year, it is a huge task preparing for this event, to make it bigger and better we need more people to help, please do get in touch.  In November, a poll was held of names for the Sleeping Giant that had been chosen by local children. a very clear winner was the name 'Gruggle' put forward by Noah, aged 7. Noah came to the Spa with his family to receive a certificate and prize.  Also in November we hosted Christchurch Hackenthorpe for a short Talk and Tour of the Bath House. Reverend Claire has had a massive impact in her time at the church with her open-minded and inclusive approach. As part of this there is now a 'Blokes Church' with a focus on mental health and wellbeing with Andrew Blench leading occasional Mindfulness Sessions in the Spa grounds. For their visit to the Bath House they invited the Bishop of Sheffield, Pete Wilcox, who certainly seemed to enjoy his time at the Spa. It was a really special event, that we felt privileged to be a part of. It was also quite a powerful validation of what we have believed for many years, that a restored Birley Spa would be an ideal hub for mental health and wellbeing in a perfect location.
Our last event of the year was our Christmas Event, which we held at The Lodge, with Santas Grotto, various stalls food. Thanks to Gail Smith for the use of the building, Hackenthorpe Youth Club for helping on the day and Willis Marshall for being the biggest Elf (and Snowman) , we've ever seen! Our wonderful Santa was the star of the show, while the Grinch was very naughty!
Over the last few months we have been working with Andy Kershaw. With his help we have applied to become a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO). The application was successful and we will now be known as Birley Spa Preservation Trust, and we are now a registered Charity No. 1211178. This is a massive step forward for us and will mean a huge change in what we are able to do and achieve. We are to host a Launch Event, date tbc, where people can come and meet us and learn about our plans for the future. After 6 turbulent years, we are hopeful that finally we are in a position to make a real difference for Birley Spa and our community. Exciting times ahead! On Saturday 25th January we will once again have a table at The Sheffield Heritage Fair, Millennium Galleries, Sheffield. We are there from 10am till 4pm. It's a fantastic event with groups from across the city. Hopefully we will see you there. Happy New Year to you all!
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