The Ribble Valley is one of six localities TaAF work with and Dunsop Bridge is one of three villages in the Hodder Valley, which lie in the heart of the Ribble Valley. The Hodder Valley is the place where one of our TaAF colleagues, Matthew Donnelly calls home.
As a resident of the valley, Matt experiences some of the barriers of living and working in a rural environment first-hand. Over the last two years has listened to a large number of people and partners and one of the outcomes is the creation of a Play Library.
We’d like to introduce Matt to you who’ll explain how the Play Library was established and the impact it has had. 
Dunsop Bridge is quite an isolated village with a half an hour drive to the nearest towns of Clitheroe and Longridge. With the exception of a playing field there were no public facilities the community could access to be more active, no team activities or clubs existed. There is no shop in the village nor are there any sports shops in the nearby towns so accessing physical activity sessions and sports equipment isn’t easy! Our geography, distance to facilities, time to travel and cost of fuel are some of Dunsop’s residents biggest barriers to being active.
The village has been declared as the official centre of the British Isles by Ordnance Survey. Despite being surrounded by thousands of acres of countryside, public access to this green space is limited as the land is owned by a few land owners including The Duchy of Lancaster and United Utilities.
Doing things differently
The idea of a play library progressed from a conversation with the Parish Council about the playing field. We discussed how we could increase its appeal and use to secure its longevity. Initially our blue sky thinking was heading the direction of organising a community festival focussed on health and wellbeing. I wasn’t sure that a one-off event would be successful in encouraging and enabling the community to be more active long-term and there was already a number of established annual events held locally.
The Chair of the Parish Council also asked me if I could obtain funding to purchase a new line marker to create a pitch to play on. I successfully sourced this piece of equipment on mutual agreement and this arrangement triggered a change in my thinking.
The playing field with just one set of goal posts wasn’t an enticing space for people to be active but add a ball and games equipment it would be a safe place to play! I had an idea, to try and test a Play Library; a collective resource of games and sports equipment which the whole community could access anytime. We’d need a shed where the equipment could be stored but if this could be positioned on the playing field it would also meet the success factors of the Parish Council. This wouldn’t be as labour intensive as organising a festival either. I’d never heard of a similar initiative but small communities often share resources, have honesty boxes in exchange for goods – I was confident this could work.
I shared my idea with the Parish Council. Initially it was met with some skepticism but fortunately my three main contacts supported me. My next task was to find funding to make the idea become a reality.
Finding funding:
During partner meetings I starting sharing the Play Library idea and mentioned I was looking for funding. Following the meetings The Parish Council, Together an Active Future and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty got in touch to inform me about The Lancashire Culture & Sport Fund. The fund has been developed to support culture and sport projects in communities with the aim of improving people’s health & well-being and cultural experience. I arranged to meet the funders, thankfully they backed the idea and commented that similar schemes had been successful in the past.
The fund was a Crowd Funding campaign. I completed a form, detailing costs for all the items I wished to purchase for the Play Library. The most expensive cost was the shed to store everything! I then created a page on the Crowdfund platform and got to work on promoting it!
My target was to raise £1185 in three months. I felt this was achievable and am thrilled to report that the campaign was a success, raising £1214 from 22 donors, including £600 from Lancashire County Council.
Communication is key
Once the campaign was live, I had to let people know about it! I had to help people understand what a Play Library was and more importantly how it could benefit them and their families. I shared the opportunity using a variety of communication channels:
- Social Media Marketing – The most digitally engaged residents are members of the ‘Active Hodder’ Facebook group. I created social media posts with a link to the crowd funding page. However social media marketing doesn’t reach as many people as you’d like in an area of limited signal!
- Email Marketing – Emails were sent to local businesses
- Word of Mouth – Talked about the initiative with my clients and chatted to people in the village.
- Printed literature – Flyers were displayed and available to take in the Slaidburn Village Store, Puddleducks Cafe and Village Halls.
In addition, the Play Library campaign was featured in the ‘Active Hodder’ Newsletter which I created. The quarterly newsletter is a popular way for people to find out hyper-local newsletter and is available from the GP surgery, Cafe and Village Halls.
Outcomes:
The shed was erected and now stores; football nets and balls, a cricket set, an orienteering kit, multi-use play equipment and litter-picking
equipment. For security, I’ve put a combination lock on and informed all the village residents of the code. To kick-start people using the equipment I have organised an informal bi-weekly kick-about and weekly rounders games.
To date, we’ve held four rounders sessions, with each being well attended (14-10-20 & 10 people). People seem to be really enjoying the
sessions and I have a feeling that this is the start of something great.
Local children have used the litter pickers, footballs, frisbees and cricket set. I’m delighted that the Parish Council have since added more games and equipment to the shed.
I’ve found the process of applying to the Lancashire Sport and Culture Fund relatively straight forward and would encourage anyone to give it a go.
To find out more detail about the process, I’ve created a video.