Former church gets set for a new lease of life shortly

work is set to start soon on a £500,000 project part of which will involve refurbishing the Grade II listed Birchcliffe Centre in Hebden Bridge.

Final plans have been drawn up by local architects, Moreton-Deakin Associates Ltd, and Frank Woolrych, who has been instrumental in bringing the project to birth, is just waiting for the go-ahead from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

In September it was revealed that the fund would award the Pennine Horizons project £524,000 which it is intended will enable the interpretation of the upper Calder Valley and Halifax’s past one thousand years history.

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Much of the money will be spent on a major redevelopment of the main area of the centre, a dilapidated former Baptist Church, which will be converted into a multi-purpose learning centre. It is estimated that work will take between four and six months.

The centrepiece of the project will be the Pennine Digital Archive which will boast at least 25 to 30,000 images. The idea is that as information is collected it will be made available to the public in print, online, as well as through a series of heritage trails using public footpaths throughout the area, by DVD and at a series of events and courses for school parties and adult groups. Mr Woolrych, president of Hebden Bridge Local History Society, hopes that 35 collections will be housed here including the famous Alice Longstaff photographic archive, the Bill Marsden collection and that of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Society. Mr Woolrych, who inherited the Longstaff Gallery collection in 1992 following a long friendship with the Calder Valley legend, said: “A lot of people have heard about what we are hoping to do and we are desperate for people to see what we are doing. I am just thrilled that we have got something to give back to the community. Deputy Calderdale Council leader Janet Battye, (Lib Dem, Calder), added: “Frank and David Fletcher, (a well-known Hebden Bridge businessman), have worked very hard on this and I am glad to hear it is finally taking off. It will be brilliant and help people explore the countryside as well as giving a new lease of life to the lovely old Baptist chapel. I know there are some fantastic old black and white photograhs and it will be great that they can be accessed by everyone.”