A big thank you to everyone who helped raise over £2,000 for the Old Low Light Heritage centre.

On Sunday 21 May, The Old Low Light opened to the public for the first time on a Sunday in 2023. This was a one off special event which had three pillars that led to its success.

 

The first of these was the support of the members of the North of England Classic Car and Pre-War Automobiles Motoring Club. The group mustered a whopping 95 classic cars, and marshalled them for display inside of Clifford’s Fort from 10am to 4pm. They attracted just short of 1,000 visitors to the heritage centre on a day we would normally be closed to the public. Without something like this to attract people to the centre we just can’t take the risk of opening on a Sunday, so we were delighted with such a big turn out of classic cars and extend our thanks to everyone who came with them or to see them.

The second key to the day’s success, came from Old Low Light’s green fingered volunteers and friends who organised and delivered a plant sale. You may know the saying ‘money doesn’t grow on trees’ but our green fingered volunteers work hard all year round, growing a fantastic selection of plants. They then transport the plants to the Old Low Light (there’s no such thing as a plant fairy – but if there was I think he might be called ‘Derek’), set up the plant sale stalls and staff them all day in order to sell them to the public. The plant sale alone this year raised 50% of the whole income for the day, but there were countless hours of work went into make that happen – so a big thank you to all our green fingered volunteers and friends.

Finally, neither the plant sale nor car show would have been able to go ahead, without the support of our wider volunteer team. Volunteers are the lifeblood of the Old Low Light, working on the welcome desk, in the café, and at special events. It takes 6 volunteers to open the centre, supported by 2 staff on a normal day of the week – but we needed double that complement on the day of the plant sale and car show. We are not open on Sundays more widely, because we don’t have enough volunteers who can commit time on a Sunday to allow us to open. Getting enough for the plant sale and car show therefore, is no small feet and I’d like to thank everyone who came in especially for it.