Bonsall Carnival

We had a lovely day in Bonsall yesterday. If only we had arrived a bit earlier; I turned up at 1pm only to discover that the carnival had already started! There was a mad dash to get the stall erected and of course there was no parking left nearby. You can imagine me on that hot afternoon lugging the stand over to the recreation ground and setting it up.

Helen and Charles arrived soon after that and we ran a well organised stall. In the end we had a good afternoon and signed up seven people. This brings the total new members for the week to 33.

Membership now stands at 455!

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See our Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: www.thegrandpavilion.co.uk

 

New Banner Unveiled

I’ve been out in Cromford, Intake Lane area, today and met some interesting people; I’ve met the couple who owned the house next to ours in Upperwood Road and remembered all our neighbours, both old and new; I also met someone who worked with my wife Penny and kept her horse in a field in a field near our fields; small world!

We now have a banner (pictured) organised by Andie and used for the first time when we had the festival fundraiser in the Fishpond.

Membership now stands at 422.

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See our Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: www.thegrandpavilion.co.uk

 

Membership Passes 400!

We now have 412 members!

Today we appeared at the “Sheldon Day” and had a great afternoon. We had a lot of interest and signed up six members. Sheldon is near Ashford-in-the-Water and therefore near the boundary of the area that we regard as our natural audience. As a result we were expecting a few people to show less interest in The Grand Pavilion; this was not a problem, all bar one were enthusiastic.

We appeared with Robin and Max from the Mining Museum and this worked well.

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See our Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: www.thegrandpavilion.co.uk

 

Fishpond Event

We have had a great event in the Fishpond. I have no idea how many bands were there, but the recently repainted building was “positively humming”.

We had the stand as you can see from the photo. As usual we signed up a few people. More important we made some more useful contacts and carried on building our relationship with the new owner of the Fishpond.

We are now at 395 members – more soon!

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See our Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: www.savethepavilion.co.uk

Highfields - Schools Will Rock You

We have just finished our three evening stint at the “We Will Rock You” at Highfields School. The whole event was sold out, that means more than 650 tickets sold! It was a fantastic performance and really showed what 17/18 year olds can do. Of particular note were Chris Woods, Louise Wallwork, Rose Laud, Luke Marsden, Tristan Kawalek and Meg Woods, who played the leading roles really professionally. I hope we can persuade them to do a performance for our members in the near future.

We had the stall open at the beginning, the interval and as people left. We got a lot of interest and signed up some members. Thanks to Trina, Sue, Helen and Janet for their help.

We are now at 382 members – more soon!

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor

Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd
See our Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &
Support out vision: www.thegrandpavilion.co.uk

Membership Motors Past 360!

After a successful weekend we are now at 361 members – more soon!

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See our Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: www.thegrandpavilion.co.uk

 

Nigel Mills MP meets the Grand Pavilion

Amber Valley’s MP Nigel Mills met the Grand Pavilion this weekend in Ambergate Carnival. I showed Nigel the displays of how the building will look once it has been converted and explained how the group will raise the necessary funds.

Afterwards Nigel said; “The group really have a super plan for the building, it will provide a fantastic resource for Amber Valley; being so close to the edge of the Borough. I can see people from as far as Ripley. Belper and Alfreton visiting the building to attend concerts and the theatre; as well as some of the many other events that the building can support.”

It is great to have Nigel’s support for our project. Although the Grand Pavilion is just outside Amber Valley, we see the Grand Pavilion as a venue for both Borough and Derbyshire Dales District. The Grand Pavilion is nearer, to most people living in both, than any other venue and it has such good transport links. With Nigel’s support we now have both local MPs helping the campaign. I will shortly be showing Nigel round the building and discussing the proposals in detail.

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See our Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: www.thegrandpavilion.co.uk

Regional Growth Fund Application Submitted

The Grand Pavilion Ltd has just submitted its Regional Growth Fund application for the Second Round.

We have applied for £1m, which is the minimum amount allowable. This rule has made it difficult for us, as we are not going to create a large number of jobs directly. We will however protect a large number of jobs in Matlock Bath and create some more jobs, in the community, from our development. The total comes to 207.

This may create the conditions, whereby we can be taken seriously, but these grants will have to be the “tipping point”; whereby they make a project happen. Since we have not got any successful grant yet, this condition cannot be shown to have been met. I don’t therefore want to raise hopes that we will be successful, from this round, and expect that we will have to get closer to our goal, by having applications to other funding bodies accepted, before we have a successful application from the RGF.

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See our Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: www.thegrandpavilion.co.uk

 

Highfields Visits the Grand Pavilion

Eddie Wilkes visited the Grand Pavilion today to see what we are doing and to offer support. Eddie is the new headmaster of Highfields School.

The Grand Pavilion is very keen to work with Highfields, particularly as it is specialising in the Performing Arts. We talked about communicating with the school at all levels and working together both before the Grand Pavilion is able to re-open and after.

Before the Grand Pavilion is open we can provide a venue for students to perform as we organise events for members. This may include classical and other music concerts, as well as work with drama and dance groups. The idea being that The Friends of the Grand Pavilion would provide an audience from the community for performers from the school; to give them practice in performing in front of a real audience.

Once the Grand Pavilion is open we could carry on that process on the same or a bigger scale, using either the “Grey Room” or the Ballroom. We could also provide a venue for larger educational events, where the school is unable to offer adequate seating capacity on site.

We hope to carry on building this relationship.

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See our Progress: http://www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: http://www.savethepavilion.co.uk

Visit from the HLF

We have had a very interesting visit from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HFL).

 

Charles, Mark and I met Des Gallagher and Lesley Owen-Jones this morning. We showed them around the Grand Pavilion and shared our vision. In response they were positive about the proposals, but made it clear that the competition is quite steep!

 

Particular areas that we need to be attentive to are those of:

·         what we can do to assist education of young people, particularly in the area of heritage,

·         producing a heritage plan for the building,

·         showing much more clearly how we will be working with the other tenants in the building.

 

We will be submitting a proposal shortly, for creating a Heritage Center in the old Tourist Information Centre. This can be created quite quickly; more about this later. We can then move on to the main application, by which will time we will have build up a closer relationship with  the HLF.

 

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See out Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: www.thegrandpavilion.co.uk

 

Pavilion Roadshow in Bakewell and Whatstandwell

We have had a lovely day in Bakewell and Whatstandwell! The sun shone all day and we have talked to dozens of people.

The stand in The Bakewell Carnival was the fist using the new table and gazebo and this really helped in the blazing sun. My head was not burnt at all!

At The Whatstandwell Festival, we just used the new table and that worked fine in the evening sun. The music was good and there was a lovely crowd.Overall we signed up 12 members over the day, taking us up to 324 overall.

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See out Progress: http://www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: http://www.savethepavilion.co.uk

Grand Pavilion Roadshow

During the summer we are appearing at a number of events in the villages around Matlock Bath. We will erect the stall, which many of you have seen, and tell people about the Pavilion. So far we have been to Starkholmes, Cromford and Darley Dale.

The next Roadshows are below:

· Bakewell Carnival in the Bakewell Recreation Ground on Sat 2^nd July from 12noon to 5pm

· Whatstandwell Festival Hankin Farm, New Road. On Sat 2^nd July from 5.30pm to 9.00pm

· Ambergate Carnival, Recreation Ground. On Saturday 9^th July from 11.00am to 4.30pm

I will have the stand on the 2^nd and will move from one event to the other, as the Bakewell event ends, so timings may be slightly out.

Would you like to come to help with this for an hour or two?

I’ll take some photos!

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See out Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: www.savethepavilion.co.uk

Membership Crosses 300 line!

The Friends of the Grand Pavilion has now motored past the 300 mark. With 306 members as of today.

The stall was out in the Darley Dale Fun Day last Sunday and helped to pile on the members. Thanks to Trina and Sue and their helpers, we now have members in Darley Dale and Two Dales.

This means that we have put on another hundred members; in just a month!

Overall Matlock Bath still has “just a head” over Cromford with over one hundred each. The other hundred members are spread throughout the towns and villages around Matlock. We do however have four members from outside Derbyshire, one from as far away as Hertfordshire!

If you are still thinking about joining, sign up now and help us to realise this impressive project.

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See out Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: www.thegrandpavilion.co.uk

 

Membership reaches 291

Before we appear at the Darley Dale Fun Day, our membership has now reached 291!

 

So this weekend we should get above the 300 mark. This is a massive increase in just four weeks.

 

As I write this, Sue and Trina are setting up in Whitworth Park in Darley Dale, so if you get a chance to come and see us; please do so!

 

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See out Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: www.thegrandpavilion.co.uk

 

Rain Stops Play at Bonsall

The rain on Sunday had its impact on the “Friends of the Grand Pavilion” as well as the Tennis at Queens Club! (By the way well done to Andy Murray).

 

We arrived to set up the stall, saw the rain and went home! Sorry Bonsall, maybe we will be at the next event.

 

Gregor

N.Gregor Macgregor
Chairman, The Grand Pavilion Ltd

See out Progress: www.savethepavilion.co.uk &

Support out vision: www.thegrandpavilion.co.uk