Knowsley Online

Mayor of Prescot's Charity CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Thursday 10th December, 7.00pm-8.20pm

Prescot Parish Church, Church Street, Prescot.

Tickets £5 on the door (accompanied under 16's free) - All proceeds donated to the Mayor of Prescot's Charities which, this year, include Willowbrook Hospice and Prescot Army Cadets.

Featuring Evelyn Community Primary School & Staff Choirs, St Mary & St Paul's Primary School Choir, Prescot Parish Church Choir, Knowsley Ladies Choir, and Liverpool Brass Ensemble.
Christmas favourites, sing-a-long carols, and festive refreshments!

Shakespeare theatre development for Prescot debated by MPs

Plans to create a Shakespearean Theatre in Prescot were debated in Parliament yesterday (8th December)

Prescot was the site of the only freestanding purpose-built Elizabethan era playhouse outside of London during the 1590s.  It was built by Richard Harrington, who was closely connected to William Stanley, the Earl of Derby, whose family home was at Knowsley Hall.

Now The Shakespeare North Trust is preparing to submit ambitious plans for a new Playhouse and education centre in Prescot which could transform the town.

At today’s special debate in Westminster Hall, local MPs George Howarth and Marie Rimmer set out the potential benefits of the development to the local area.

At the centre of the Prescot Playhouse development would be a ‘cockpit’ theatre built to original 1629 plans by renowned architect of the day, Inigo Jones.  It would become a major tourist attraction for the Liverpool City Region, bringing in visitors from across the world, creating jobs in Prescot and further afield, helping to create a night time economy and giving a significant boost to the local economy.  It would also include a university college for literary scholars, a range of educational, leisure and community facilities, and a cultural piazza for performance and events.

Wayne Rooney surprises Kirkby primary school with Schools 4 Health award

England football captain Wayne Rooney returned to his roots to pay a surprise visit to a primary school just up the road from his birthplace of Croxteth in Liverpool.

Wayne dropped into the whole-school assembly at St Laurence’s Catholic Primary School in Kirkby to present staff and pupils with the Knowsley Schools 4 Health Gold Award.

The Leeside Avenue school has been working in partnership with the Schools 4 Health programme, run by 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, over the last year to support their pupils to get healthy and develop a healthier culture within the school. It is the first school in Knowsley to achieve Gold Award status – the highest level of the programme.

The Gold Award is only presented to schools that can show evidence of both positive behaviour changes and sustainable cultural changes within the school community. St Laurence’s has brought in a raft of positive changes as part of the programme, such as introducing a healthy cookery programme and a wide range of after-school activities, including a family fit class where children and their parents are encouraged to get fit together and learn about the importance of healthy eating.

Work starts on fourth Prescot THI building restoration

Work has started on restoring and repairing a nineteenth century building as part of the £3.2 million Prescot Townscape Heritage Initiative (THI).

Number 19 Eccleston Street – occupied by Andrew Louis Estate Agents – is to be repaired from top to bottom with its Victorian shop front restored and reinstated.  Heloise Wood, of Atelier MB Architects who is overseeing the project said: “We found a small surviving section of the Victorian shop front that had been boarded over.  We have used this as a guide to restoring the rest of the shop front in a traditional way.”

The work is scheduled to be completed in January 2016, so that the shop is ready for the now-traditional New Year rush of eager house hunters.  Louis Anastasiou, Managing Director of Andrew Louis Estate Agents said: “We are a local firm who have been based in Prescot for many years.  We are excited to see our building, which has a long history behind it, restored to its former glory.”

Cllr Mike Murphy, Knowsley’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economic Development said: “The Prescot THI is regenerating the town centre building by building.  Each project is a stepping stone to our goal of making the town centre more attractive to shoppers, businesses and investors.”

Prescot was one of England’s main and oldest watch-making towns.  For a large part of the 19^th century the building was the home of Joseph Preston and Sons, watch movement and chronometer makers.  The family’s final apprentice, Harry Pybus, was the last watchmaker in Prescot when he retired in the 1930s.  He had used the workshop behind no.19 all of his working life.  The workshop was demolished in the 1950s.

The firm carrying out the works is Quadriga Contracts Ltd, who specialise in working on historic buildings and sites.  Richard Granton of Quadriga said: “We are really pleased to be working on our first Prescot THI building.  The restoration work here and on other buildings should give the town centre a real lift.”

The work at 19 Eccleston Street will be immediately followed by repair and restoration schemes at 54 Eccleston Street (Help the Aged) and 56 Eccleston Street (Max Speilman) in the New Year.  Work is also scheduled for buildings on Leyland Street.

The Prescot Townscape Heritage Initiative is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, which has contributed a grant of £1.85 million, Knowsley Council and other partners. 

Phictured:- Scaffolding around 19 Eccleston Street ready for restoration work to start.

SCA steps in for Morris Dancers

Tissue makers SCA have made all the right steps to help out the Kirkby-based Arriva Premiere Morris Dancers.

The group, which trains weekly at the town’s Southdene Community Centre, has received a £250 donation from the company’s Skelmersdale mill to buy new costumes for its young performers.

Established in 1992, the group now has some 60 members enjoying success in dance competitions around the North West.

“The costumes do need replacing fairly regularly as the children grow out of them and they’re worn every week of the year,” explained Joan Largue, the group’s principal.

“We do a lot of fundraising to help meet the costs, but donations like this are a lovely assistance for us.”

SCA’s Skelmersdale mill produces paper tissues, including the household brand Velvet and commercial brand Tork, as well as ‘own brand’ products for leading supermarket chains.

Site manager Mark Mannering said: “The young dancers gain a great deal of pleasure from performing with the club and it was our pleasure to offer them a helping hand.”

Pictured:- SCA’s Amanda Rose presents the cheque to principal trainer Joan Largue and treasurer Diane Taylor with members of the Arriva Premiere Morris Dancers looking on

business scoops £50k of funding

A Liverpool social business has successfully secured £50,000 of capital funding to expand and develop, thanks in part to the work of Knowsley-based social impact business, the First Ark Grou

Liverpool’s Genie In The Gutter has received an initial investment from Big Issue Invest’s Corporate Social Venturing Programme, which is supported and part-funded by the First Ark Group. Genie In The Gutter is one of three social businesses from across the North West to have secured funding, along with Cheadle’s Hospice Quality Partnership and Wigan-based EPIC Problem Gambling Consultancy.

A total of 12 organisations across the UK were awarded the funding after a rigorous application process which culminated in presentations to an investment panel made up of partners and business leaders who support the programme.

Mentored and supported through the application process by fellow Liverpool-based organization First Ark, Genie In The Gutter offers creative opportunities and training to active substance misusers and people with mental health issues, providing artistic and recovery classes in a safe and supportive environment.

Based in Liverpool city centre, the organisation has seen a huge increase in demand for its services and will use the £50,000 investment to develop its Recovery Rises programme. Recovery Rises, which raises awareness of recovery from addiction, is the UK's first online magazine to be produced by service users though a digital inclusion recovery programme. Genie In The Gutter hopes to develop Recovery Rises into a financially reliant trading arm of the business and make Genie In The Gutter a registered charity.