Chair's update, February 2025

Tom Walker, Chair

Happy New Year to all our newsletter readers

As I write this on Saturday afternoon I will begin with a special hello to a reader from New Zealand.  Affection for Abney stretches around the world.  Thank you for your lovely letter.

The winter months are a bit quieter for us but we are busy planning the year ahead.  Because of various changes we are experimenting with some fresh ideas and a new model.

Firstly I wanted to say a massive goodbye to Steph who is leaving after 18 months of being our Events Manager.  Steph has run an exceptional programme of community events as part of our core programme and events paid for by the National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of the 'activity plan' that accompanies the physical restoration.  We will put a show case of these on our websites and Steph has completed transformed the approach to community engagement with many groups coming to Abney for the first time.  We hope to continue this sort of work on a freelance basis so we can be flexible around our financial constraints.  We continue to look for collaborators with ideas of how we can promote Abney through our chapel events and in the Delph room.

It was a pleasure to accompany Hackney Council colleagues to the Hackney Design Awards in December.  Abney's restoration received a commendation and the whole event was a celebration of Hackney's progressive approach to architecture and design.  My day job is in Essex County Council and we don't have an equivalent across the huge county.

As a look ahead we are now approaching a bit more of a normal operating environment.  We are putting together a core programme of events and we are planning an exciting programme of radical writers coming to the chapel.

We continue to explore ideas about funding and we are looking at options around our membership and 'Friends of' models to help continue the Trust's work in telling the stories of Abney, promoting the rare ecology found here and the community engagement with the site, especially from all the diverse communities of Hackney.

On all these matters we will putting more detail on our website and notice boards as we go.

I hope many of you will come to our events through the year. I look forward to speaking at the 24th Stoke Newington History Talks event hosted by local historian Amir Dotan on 27th February and the details are here. The event has sold out rapidly, but you can add your name to the waiting list, or access the slides from the talks here after the event.