Skinningrove
Skinningrove Link Up (SLU)
Skinningrove is a rural village located in South-East Cleveland. Historically, the village grew around agricultural, mining and fishing industries. The current population is approximately 500 people, with the majority in disadvantaged groups including the elderly, single parents, low income, and unemployed. Since their decline there has been a need to develop, motivate and sustain the community in new ways. Whilst the area and Skinningrove Link Up have benefited from a package of regeneration initiatives, there are ongoing concerns related to declining rural service provision and limited economic opportunities.
Following the floods in the year 2000, residents and volunteers re-opened the old school building to provide emergency provisions for those affected by the flooding. Having reopened the building (now named the Riverside Building), local residents realised the importance of regenerating the building as a community centre. Images and stories from these times can be seen on this website. They formed a group – Skinningrove Link Up – which has developed community-led initiatives for the village and has gained charity status.
Skinningrove Link Up is a charity organisation and company limited by guarantee made up of 14 trustees and board members who are all local residents. They have successfully applied for funding and have secured a Big Lottery Fund grant (£191,000 – Reaching Communities Programme) which funds 2.5 paid staff to develop long-term sustainable community projects including social enterprise. Skinningrove Link Up also runs the Skinningrove Newsletter which started in 2002 with 250 copies. This has now doubled to 500 copies, distributed around the village, the adjacent town of Loftus and the nearby village of Carlin How, as well as the digital edition on the Skinningrove Website (http://www.skinningrovelinkup.org.uk/). The internet editions of the newsletter have attracted interest from around the world and prompted enquiries about tracing local ancestry. As a result of this interest, SLU have started a funded Skinningrove News Archive Project. Project participants are using Census data and archiving old photographs and stories for future generations in the village.