New hub is a piece of cake

Residents of Hill Top & Caldwell Big Local gathered early in the summer to celebrate the grand opening of a new community hub. The chair of the partnership, Ann Cox, joined by mayor of Nuneaton, Cllr Rob Tromans, and Local Trust chief executive Matt Leach, cut the ribbon to officially declare the space open.   

Photographers, council reps and local residents came together under a green marquee to watch as Ann – a small laughing woman sporting HTC’s navy shirt and dwarfed between the two men – described what the hub would mean to the community. Propped up by the pavement behind chequered red bunting and multicoloured balloons, Ann described it as her legacy and life’s work.  

The new hub, on Donnithorne Avenue, opens out onto a gentle square of green surrounded by red-brick homes behind. Locals were able to move from blowing bubbles or enjoying the crafts table outside, to streaming in for a sit down on the plush new sofas or for a personalised HTC cupcake from the buffet.  

“It’s warm, friendly and inviting…you can’t go wrong with cupcakes!”  

The story of the hub began, less glamorously, with a bus. In 2019, Ann decided that the residents of HTC needed somewhere to gather, and envisaged a minibus in which people could gather or raise concerns. Unfortunately, it simply could not fit in her driveway – plus, she didn’t have a driving licence. So, the idea of a new community centre took shape, and after endless emails, phone calls and forms, they found their space: an empty shop unit on the top of Donnithorne Road. But when the partnership opened the keys to the building with their new keys, they realised that the work had only just begun. It was a shambles. 

Now, the walls beam with spotless cerulean blue and warm orange. The HTC logo – a multicoloured rendering of five handheld stick figures – looks over the main space. Artwork depicting scenes from the area hang jauntily from the walls, and the hub boasts cosy nooks for local gossip. It’s bright, modern and multipurpose, with different areas set aside for activities like classes or listening sessions. Even when it’s closed, it’s inviting; the shutters are painted by a local artist with hands of several different races joined together, emblazoned with the message: community. 

Judging by the number of residents who cheered on the ribbon cutting, from the very youngest – a newborn baby – to the elderly – it will be well attended. I speak to Lana Linnett, a special-needs teaching assistant who’s lived in the area most of her life. Lana, 35, says that the hub might be too small for any activities that involve large groups of children, but that she thinks people will go and socialise there. Her nine-year-old son is already planning to attend for the Halloween pumpkin carving. “It’s warm, friendly and inviting,” she says. “You can’t go wrong with cupcakes!”  

HTC covers Old Hill Top, New Hill top, Chilvers Coton and Caldwell, post-war estates in a pleasantly rural area just outside Nuneaton, a large market town in North Warwickshire. The author George Eliot was born nearby, on the Arbury Estate, and the town features heavily in her 1858 novel Scenes of a Clerical Life.  

A silk ribbon also runs through the history of the area, where production of the hair ornaments began in the mid-17th century. The ribbons were woven by hand, with specialist weavers perfecting the technique over two hundred years. But by the 19th century, the arrival of factories and mass-manufacturing in the north of England had put a strain on the local textile industry. The trade agreement between Britain and France in 1860 allowed for cheaper imports of French silk, and the ribbon workers’ hands were tied.  

But silk was not the only material produced in Nuneaton – the area belongs to the Warwickshire coalfield, and by the 1930s a third of the town’s men were miners. The closing of the last Warwickshire coal mine in 2013, however, brought mass unemployment and the melancholy known to former mining towns all over the country. Now, the idyllic scenery hides common problems of joblessness, crime and loneliness. But the area is also marked by community spirit, with families sometimes as large as three generations, and a sense of engagement obvious at the opening. The Big Local partnership described the residents as close knit and cheerful – actually, the type of people to offer a random journalist from London their very last cupcake.  

“The area’s not always that pleasant – there’s antisocial behaviour,” says Lana. “So hopefully this new hub will give people somewhere to go. A chance to make new friends.”