Who We Are

Our Wednesday and Friday morning groups are open to all, completely free, and have free refreshments too! You can drop in at any time between 9am and 12:30pm and stay for as long or as little as you like.

We've set up a book, games, jigsaw and DVD library in the foyer - where you're more than welcome to borrow anything you'd like, either to use in the centre, or take home with you. Any donations to our little library are always welcome and greatly appreciated.

For those who'd like to join in (it's always optional, we don't mind if you rather sit and have a cuppa and a natter!) we have partnered with the lovely folk from Move Durham who provide us with a guided walking session on a Wednesday morning and a gentle exercise session on a Friday morning. Both are approximately an hour long and completely accessible to all who would like to take part.

On a Wednesday morning we're also now doing 'Woolly Wednesdays' where you can bring along your knitting, crocheting, needle felting or just yourself, for a knit and natter. If you want to pick up the needles but don’t know how, come along and we can help you get started! 

On a Friday morning we also have our new age kurling set out. For those who'd like to play, it's a completely accessible indoor game, which can be played standing or seated, by both able-bodied and disabled people of all ages alike... and it's lots of fun!

In addition to all of this, we often have craft activities, small trips out and an annual Christmas Party - with lots of food and fun, and where if we're very lucky the wonderful staff at Selby Cottage Childcare Centre will bring some of the nursery children over to sing for us, and they may even get a special visitor.

Keep an eye on our events calendar for extra activity and event dates!

In February 2024 we organised the first South Pelaw Window Wander, and it was a huge success, so we're making it an annual event in the hopes that it will continue to grow each year!

The idea is for local residents to make a wonderful window display (with lots of black card and tissue paper!) and over two evenings in February everyone taking part will light up their windows so that we can all enjoy exciting festival of magical outdoor galleries in the streets, bringing some light and loveliness to what can otherwise be a dark and dreary winter month.

With the help of some funding we are able to provide anyone who would like to take part with all of the materials they might need and will once again have some sessions with lovely local artist Hayley, prior to the event, where all are welcome to come along for a little help and advice to make their window ideas come to life! 

Some of these sessions will be held at Holyoake and hopefully, as with last year, some will be held during and after school at CE Primary School. We were thrilled last year that the school got all of the children involved to make a giant Chinese dragon display across their windows, it was fabulous!

On the designated two nights, when all of the windows are lit up, we'll have maps (or we may upgrade to an app!) and refreshments available - hot chocolates are a must on a cold winter's night - at Holyoake, and a little craft session to enjoy before you go on your walk - last year we made wonderful lanterns to take around with us - then you can head out and discover the wonders of the window wander.

One of the bigger projects we wanted to achieve from the start of the Hub's creation was to have a community garden. A community garden is a great way to bring the community together to achieve a common goal while also benefiting our mental health, nutrition and the environment - and free fruit and veg is a brilliant reward too!

After some time of searching for  the right place to create our green space, we were extremely fortunate to have been offered the use of two small allotment plots in South Pelaw. As you can see from the photos above, there was very little there to begin with, (although there were lots of wonderful fruit bushes and a fabulous apple tree to help start us off!) and a lot of work to do, but we now have a small gardening group, some with very little or no experience (and thankfully one or two who know a bit about it all!) and we're working on creating something amazing.

This year so far we've cleared lots of areas, created beds for crops, built a small pond, made a wildflower area and planted lots and lots of seeds and seedlings! There's still an awful lot to do though as we're hoping to create more areas for planting, build a second greenhouse and summer house we've very kindly been donated, create paths and seating areas, clean up an old fire pit we were gifted and get the weeds a little more under control, amongst other things.

We're thrilled that Selby Cottage nursery are excited to get the children involved with this too, with regular visits so that they can see how things change and grow, and hopefully get stuck in to help too. We're just starting to harvest the first few crops and are planning our first sessions for making use of the extra produce by preserving and pickling, which will take place one Friday evening per month at Holyoake and is open to all who'd like to join us (whether you're part of the gardening group or not!) dates and times cam be found on our events calendar.

If you would like to join our gardening group please get in touch or pop in to see Vicky at Holyoake Community Centre on a Wednesday or Friday morning.

Over the last couple of years we've had the pleasure of organising a few family and community events that have been a great success! 

We started with a big family fun night, with lots of games and activities, pizza and chips, which had a brilliant turnout. The indoor archery and curling were particularly popular! Then we planned a big celebration for the Queen's Jubilee, with stalls, craft activities, live music, a bouncy castle and lawn games. It was wonderful to see so many people join us with their picnics and the weather didn't disappoint either!

Ahead of the Window Wander at the beginning of the year we teamed up with Chester-le-Street Community Litter Heroes and a fabulous 26 volunteers went litter picking around South Pelaw. A total of 36 bags were collected in total, with 69 vapes with 54 and 6 batteries saved from the streets and as you can see from the photos above, the window wander was a great success, with lots of the community taking part and enjoying the displays. 

We now hold a regular games night on the first Friday of every month, where we provide a whole host of different types of games, for all ages (or you can bring your own), and have a couple of hours of fun, with hot dogs and refreshments, all completely free and open to all. We also have a small (but growing!) library of games, jigsaws, DVDs and books on our bookcases in the community centre that are free to borrow any time - great for helping to entertain all the family on rainy days!

We held a wonderful scarecrow competition in October, with lots of entries from both children and adults, and we had an evening of crafts, games, prizes and foods for all to enjoy! We also collected a wonderful harvest donation basket for a local food bank. The scarecrow entries were all then posted online, and after a week our two winners and runners up were announced and they received some fabulous chocolatey prizes!

We're now planning a Christmas Jumper competition for December and our second Window Wander is now in the planning for February 2025 (you can check the events calendar for dates)... and we're always open to ideas for future events or regular activities, so please get in touch if you have any ideas!