Evening Temperance Bars at Settle Quakers
We have run a few evening Temperance Bar events at the Settle Quaker Meeting House in the evenings over the summer. Picture above is Harry and Dave being Temperance bar men!
We have a small amount of funding for room hire and buying fancy cordials, teas and snacks from Craven Communities Together and Yorkshire Housing.
The idea is to offer an early evening social venue where people of all ages (and well behaved dogs) can come and socialise without the presence of alcohol.
In Settle after 5pm the only venues open are pubs which are not always appropriate for families with children or for people wishing to avoid drinking.
Saturdays 10th and 24th February
Saturdays 9th and 23rd and March
4pm to 8pm at Quaker Meeting House in the small meeting room.
All these will be alcohol free events, offering simple food like soup or a curry, snacks, cake and hot drinks and cordials. If you want to bring your own board games that is fine too.
At some of these we will do simple craft activities like soap making and maybe make chocolate.
Sowing the seeds of growth
Jo Rhodes from Settle Hub writes: At the Community Fridge last year we gave out hundreds of seedlings, plants, fruit bushes and small packets of seeds. Many of these were unusual heritage varieties so if you grew them and they did well then we’d really appreciate it if you could let us know what worked.
There are some great seed saving resources on the Vital Seeds website so do consider trying to save your own seeds if you get some good crops of fruit and veg that you like.
https://vitalseeds.co.uk/growing-resources/seed-saving-resources/
We are hoping to set up a sort of Seed Library alongside the Community Fridge this year and so will have lots of seeds in jars so you can just take a few. We will also make up small bags with a few seeds to hand out but lots of vegetables and flowers have very tiny seeds so they are a bit fiddly to bag up.
If you have any spare seeds you want to donate you can always drop them off at the Community Fridge or pop them through the letter box of the office in Commercial Courtyard if we aren’t there.
Even old seeds that have been hanging around a while may be okay so if you want to experiment there is a very simple way of testing germination rates on this Vital Seeds web page too.
https://vitalseeds.co.uk/growing-resources/seed-saving-resources/germination-testing/
Email hub@settlecommunityandbusinesshub.org.uk or phone 07977 040329 if you can help or want to get involved with Seed Library or other growing related things.
Public Living Room at Settle Quakers
Our Public Living Room is open to anyone who wants to come along at Settle Quakers small meeting room on Mondays and Thursdays every week from 10.30am to 1.30pm.
We offer hot drinks and meals (but please come before 1pm if you want feeding), our visitors can play card games or Connect 4, there is always a jigsaw to do, craft activities or help with cooking, but no pressure to do anything if people just want a chat and some company.
All Public Living Rooms are run on similar lines and the first one started in Sheffield in 2016 but now there are over 200 around the world. They were originally run by a charity Camerados and early ones were based in libraries or as pop-up events in shopping centres or hospitals. Public Living Rooms try to encourage visitors to stick to these six Camerados ideas: understand its ok to be a bit rubbish, don’t try to fix people, have fun, mix with people unlike yourself, disagree respectfully, if someone is struggling ask them to help you.
We often do simple activities like soap making or cake baking and have various people popping in to offer their time to do things like hand massage, or fused glass too. As the days (hopefully) start to get a bit warmer we will do more trips to the allotment and gardening for those that fancy it.
Hub staff are always on hand to have a chat with people who may need a bit more support in general or with things like understanding bills, advice about energy saving, filling in forms or directing them to other organisations for support.
Ink recycling at the Hub
We are still collecting any sort of ink cartridge, big or small, used or unused, for recycling. We can send them off and get a little bit of money back for them.
Small ink cartridges can be popped through the Settle Community and Business Hub letter box at Unit 1, Commercial Courtyard or left with us when someone is in the office. If we aren’t in, you can also leave them with Craven Homelet next door or with Paul from Barclays when he is in the Hub on Tuesdays and Fridays.
There are now also collection boxes at the Quakers and St John’s.
Community Fridge at the Little Hub
The Community Fridge is currently open Mondays and Thursdays 2.30pm to 4.15pm and Wednesday mornings 10am to 12 noon at the Little Hub in Commercial Courtyard next to Craven Homelet.
Our Community Fridge is a great way of reducing fruit and veg waste from local supermarkets but also allows local gardeners, residents and businesses to pass on surplus food they will not use. If you end up buying too much when you get visitors or get given foods you don’t like, please think of us!
We are very grateful for all the interest in the Community Fridge and are now increasingly swapping ‘non-food’ things like toiletries, small kitchen items like crockery and pans, small items of gardening equipment and we will be doing a lot of seed and plant swaps when the weather improves. Thanks to the Co-op and Booth’s for their support and donations of fruit, veg, baked goods and also the growing number of individuals and local businesses like Wholesome Bee, Forage and Feast, Drake and Macefield, who are passing surplus or short dated things on to us.
If you would like to donate or pick up food but can’t make it when the Community Fridge is open, you can come to us at Settle Quakers on Monday or Thursdays where we hold our Public Living Rooms between 10.30am and 1.30pm. You can also leave food with Paul from Barclays when he is doing the pop-up banking on Tuesdays and Fridays from our office between 9.30am and 3.30pm.
We also leave some food outside Victoria Hall by the ‘free bookcase’ on Monday and Thursday mornings if we have a lot of surplus veg and bread. Steve the Co-op cleaner leaves surplus food there sometimes too.
Knit (or Sew) and Natter every Wednesday
This group meets at the Settle Hub office in Commercial Courtyard every Wednesday 10am to 12 noon. We have sewing machines, lots of fabric, knitting needles and wool at the hub so feel free to come and use our materials and equipment or bring your own. We sometimes do sessions on felting, making lampshades or beeswax wraps but usually people bring their own things to work on.
All are welcome – no sewing or knitting skills required, you can always learn or just natter!
These sessions are free to attend and funded by the Well Together team at Bradford District Care Trust.
Any questions on any of the above items, or suggestions or offers of help please contact Jo Rhodes at hub@settlecommunityandbusinesshub.org.uk or call 07977 040329
