Close to £9,000 has been handed out in the last year to organisations and charities in Bacup and Stacksteads by Bacup Cultural Consortium.

In March 2021, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England awarded £90,000 to Bacup Cultural Consortium (BCC) to kickstart a cultural programme in the town.

As well as introducing the This Here Festival over several days in June and other events, BCC offered microgrants to boost activities arranged by other providers.

Lancashire Telegraph: Paul Jenkins recites his poems to pupils at Britannia Primary School, Bacup, to encourage entries to his poetry competition.Paul Jenkins recites his poems to pupils at Britannia Primary School, Bacup, to encourage entries to his poetry competition. (Image: Catherine Smyth)

Seven primary schools participated in a project devised by poet and radio presenter Paul Jenkins to encourage children in Years 3 to 6 to write poems about ‘My Rossendale’. The project received £1,000.

Paul said: “The four winners from each school from Years 3,4,5 and 5, will be invited to a celebration event at Rossendale Radio to share their poems live on air and they will be printed in a book being produced and printed by Double Rainbow which will be launched on World Book Day next year.”

Grants totaling £1,950 helped provide musical events at Stubbylee Community Greenhouses, and a blues night and showcase at the ABD Centre.

ABD Project Manager Peter Dunn said: “We had five singers at the Blues evening and seven performers and artistes at the showcase and that attracted an audience of more than 100 people.”

Lancashire Telegraph: Lions from Northern Dragons interact with the crowd at Bacup CarnivalLions from Northern Dragons interact with the crowd at Bacup Carnival (Image: Chloe Butterworth)

Stacksteads Lantern Procession received £1,000 and communications officer for Stacksteads Countryside Park Group Jackie Oakes said: “The BCC grant played a key part in our organisation being able to secure matched funding from Lancashire County Council so our free lantern festival workshops and parade could be held for the sixth time.”

Bacup’s largest one-day event, Bacup and Stacksteads Carnival (BASCO), benefited from £410, which enabled two amazing interactive Chinese Lions from Northern Dragons.

Vice-chairman of organiser’s BASCO Frances Whitehead said: “The extra that the Lions bring to our procession is that they can mix with the crowd and connect the onlookers to the people who are parading.”

Lancashire Telegraph: Stacksteads Lantern procession - Susan Barber and Martin Sharpe with their dragon lantern.Stacksteads Lantern procession - Susan Barber and Martin Sharpe with their dragon lantern. (Image: Stacksteads Lantern Festival)

Bacup Natural History Society received £1,000 which helped to fund inter-generational memory lane and Bacup Natters recording sessions.

Treasurer Christine Ormrod said: “We held six memory lane drop-in sessions when our Young Ambassadors were recorded speaking with visitors to create podcasts for future use.”

Bacup Now’s Easter Festival at Bacup Library received £409.81 and Bacup Pride’s Flowerpot Festival received £1,000 which helped towards the cost of materials and printing free trail leaflets.

A further £1,000 was awarded to Valley Heritage for the Rossendale Sole Project and Project lead Pat Smith explained: “The footwear industry is a very important part of Rossendale’s heritage and we need to keep that history alive.

“This grant will enable us to bring together people who worked in the footwear trade and get their input on what happens to this collection, its future use and to encourage discussion.”

A final £1,000 grant will facilitate local artist Amy Callaghan to work with youth groups at The Station in Bacup to explore new creative activities.