Warm Wooly Wednesday in Woolavington

It was a Warm Woolly Wednesday in Woolavington this week.

Bitham Walk Hall in the village was the venue for the launch of the first Homes in Sedgemoor Warm Space.

The initiative is designed to supply a warm and comfortable venue for local people to meet up – as well as bring the community hall back into proper use.

HiS has arranged with SHAL to promote ‘Warm Woolly Wednesdays’ to all their customers in Woolavington who are over fifty-five and live alone or as a couple.

This first session saw more than thirty residents get together for a fish and chip dinner, many of whom have experienced isolation in recent years.

Peter Beer, HiS Community Champion, and Katie and Nick Alvis, from Bitham Community Coordinators, were on hand, as were representatives from the HiS team. The community group works hard to bring the community together, running popular family bingo sessions, Easter egg hunts and coffee mornings and opening a Santa’s Grotto for local children.

Peter said:

“The important thing is to get residents to let us know what they would like us to do for them. It must start somewhere. A lot of what we do is directing people in the right direction to get the help they need.”

Neighbours Grace and Margaret attended, with Margaret encouraging Grace to come out as she rarely leaves her home. Margaret said: “Grace has dementia and is stuck in all the time, and only speaks to her carers when they visit, so it is great for us both to be out.”

Jon Cousins, from the Villages Together group, was also in attendance. Villages together are looking into the idea of creating a Village Hub for the Polden Hills and are looking at the feasibility of using the Bitham Walk all as a base if it has the support of local people. Although Woolavington is a large village, it is short on community resources, with the last village pub being turned into a convenience store a few years ago., Although it is a small building, the hall is the only real community meeting place.

Jon said: 

“Bitham Walk Hall is a brilliant place for us all to come together. It has been lovely to listen to people and gather more information about what we can do in the future.”

Ella, from Homes in Sedgemoor, said she was looking forward to using the Warm Woolly Wednesday in the future, so she gets the opportunity to show her face more around the village.

Linda Hull, from HiS, who ran the initiative said:

“This has been a great launch of the Bitham Walk Warm space we had a fantastic turnout for the first session, and we will be doing them every Wednesday supplying a social setting and free activities every Wednesday from 11am-3pm. People seem to have really enjoyed getting together, and it was great to have housing staff on hand. We have plans to invite local agencies and PCSOs to future sessions.

“We would like to thank Thinkfish for their support of this first Warm Woolly Wednesday by providing us with some lovely food at a substantial discount.”