Chinese social entrepreneurs visit Alston

A group of leading social entrepreneurs and NGO’s from Beijing spent the day in Alston Moor on Friday, 1st July on a fact finding mission visiting some of Alston Moor’s many social and community run enterprises. Cybermoor Ltd, the Alston based community owned broadband and ICT service provider hosted the visit in partnership with The Cumbria Social Enterprise Partnership on behalf of the British Council.

Sue Gilbertson who coordinated the visit on behalf of Cybermoor and The Cumbria Social Enterprise Partnership said “The group was keen to make the long journey up to North Cumbria to visit our community, which is acquiring a name for itself as the Social Enterprise Capital of the UK. We were honoured to be able to host the visit and demonstrate at first hand our community’s thriving Hub of social enterprise activity and ‘can do’ attitude and passion.”

The group began their ‘Social Enterprise Safari’ at Alston’s Town Hall hearing how Cybermoor had developed and diversified their services over its 10 years of operation and also their plans for the future. Paul Dodson, CSEP's Chairman also talked to the group about the social enterprise sector within Cumbria and the contribution it makes to the local economy and social landscape of the county, as well as the work and support the Partnership provides to the sector.

In the morning they group visited the award winning Moody Baker workers’ co-operative bakery and shop and talked to its founder Meryl Baker about the company’s ethos. They also visited the village of Nenthead to see the community owned village shop and post office run from the old Reading Room, where Angela Green, the shop’s post mistress helped some of the group send postcards home to Beijing. The group were then given a tour of the adjacent Methodist Chapel and Kim Hobson and John Wise members of the project steering group, talked about how the community were exploring the idea of acquiring and renovating the now disused and decaying building to turn it into a vibrant, multi-faceted business/community asset, catering for both local residents and visitors.

After heading back to the Town Hall and a delicious lunch provided by the Moody Baker, Jules Cadie talked to the group about the work of the Alston Moor Partnership and some of the projects being carried out by the relatively newly formed Sustainable Alston Moor Group. Following this, the group took to the road again visiting Alston’s community run gym down at Tyne Willows and then onto Station Yard to pay a visit to the HUB Transport & Heritage Museum and the South Tynedale Railway & Preservation Society. The group managed a quick shopping trip up Front Street, before boarding their minibus to continue their journey onto Harrogate.

The group’s representative said “We really loved visiting Alston Moor and we were impressed at how an entire community has come together for a social change … we were inspired by what we heard and saw during our visit.”