Bowburn Village Celebration (BVC)

See also the website of the village website, Bowburn Interchange

BVC is a community group that was first formed to honour local people killed in World War II (1939-45) and to celebrate the 50th anniversary of VE Day.

A stone War Memorial was dedicated on May 7th 1995 and a leather-bound, hand-calligraphed Book of Remembrance, listing all local men killed in action in WWII, was dedicated in Bowburn Community Centre on November 8th 1998.

Later, a brass plaque was commissioned, also for the Community Centre, to add the names of four Bowburn men who died during the First World War (1914-1918), which had not been included, either on the plaque already in the Community Centre (originally in the first Miners’ Welfare and Institute built in 1921) or on the plaque first erected in St. Paul’s Church, Quarrington Hill, and currently in Christ the King Church, Bowburn.

In 1995, BVC organised a Carnival Parade and Fun Day as part of the VE & VJ Days celebrations and this became an annual event – usually a wet one!  It was discontinued, however, after 2003. (A different Fun Day has been organised by Bowburn Community Association, the Bowburn Youth Project and Bowburn & Parkhill Community Partnership since 2012. BVC, like many other local community groups, take part in this.)

During those eight years, BVC also organised a best kept garden competition (later taken on by the Parish Council), worked towards starting a local history group (now well-established), helped to re-open the DJ Evans Youth Club (now also known as the Bowburn Youth Project) and, in 1997, conducted a Village Appraisal (with help from Rural Action). This Appraisal included a questionnaire survey and “planning for real” exercises, with a giant 3-dimensional map of the village being made by local school children, showing where residents (young and old) thought improvements were most needed.

An Appraisal report and a “Making Bowburn Better” Action Plan were completed in 1998 and progress was made on a number of its objectives. With significant help from the National Lottery Charities Board and other funders, and in partnership with the Youth Club and the Community Association, BVC replaced one of the “grot spots” identified in the Appraisal with a new footpath and landscaping, between Burn Street and Steavenson Street.  (This now runs beside the Youth Club and behind the Community Centre.)  Improvements were also made around the front of the Library and at the entrance to the Community Centre.

Other identified “grot spots”, notably the two main allotment sites, the garage site at the bottom of Bow and Burn Streets, and the former cinema/bingo hall, were subsequently tackled successfully by other agencies, including the Parish Council, to produce a GP surgery, the Doorstep Green communal garden, allotment garden fencing and the Wellfields Business Centre (where the derelict cinema once stood, on Durham Road).

BVC also established a computer suite in the Community Centre, with the help of Lottery funding and local businesses (notably PC Henderson’s).  This too was in response to interests expressed in the Village Appraisal.  It is now a well-used part of the Community Association’s activities.

For several years, now, BCC’s only main activity is to produce the quarterly village newsletter, Bowburn Interchange.

The decision to concentrate on this was taken partly because it was clear that this was going to be a long-term commitment, which it was felt it was important to do successfully, and partly because other issues raised in the Village Appraisal had, as hoped, been taken on by other groups and organisations.  Many of these became a central part of the Bowburn regeneration programme, which was reported regularly in the Interchange.

A thriving community partnership was established in 2004, bringing together both individual residents and representatives of a wide range of local community groups and other organisations seeking to improve the quality of life of all who live in Bowburn and Parkhill and the surrounding area.  (The work of Bowburn & Parkhill Community Partnership is also regularly reported in the Interchange.)

As one of the original aims of BVC was to bring together people from all parts of the community – initially to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II, but subsequently in striving to "Make Bowburn Better", members of BVC agreed that the new partnership was far better placed to pursue this aim on the widest possible front.

BVC’s editorial policy continues to support initiatives to support and develop positive aspects of Bowburn’s community life.