What is The Bank?
The Bank provides a warm and friendly place for people to meet and enjoy a cup of coffee, take part in activities and events or take advantage of our ‘pay as you feel’ café and community market. Our café is open from 9am to 3pm on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays – offering a delicious & healthy menu from surplus & waste food as well locally produced ingredients. There are rentable rooms for small businesses and artists, fulfilling a local need for office spaces. In addition, the kitchen and the front of house provide volunteering, work experience and training opportunities – just enquire at The Bank if you’re interested in finding out more.
The Bank is an important bridge between Derwent Street, Chopwell Park’s pump track and Chopwell Woods by providing cyclist and dog friendly facilities, bringing much needed revenue and visitors into the centre of the village.
2020 video: our original strategy for The Bank
Our video about the project has been made by Chopwell based business Fleetfoot Studios with funding from the Ballinger Trust.
Click the links below to view:
Find out more about Venue Hire & Catering and Office Rental at The Bank
What’s Happened So Far?
In 2019 Gateshead Council agreed to lease the former Lloyds Bank building on Derwent Street in Chopwell to the Regeneration Group for 35 years for a ‘peppercorn’ rent, so that we could bring the building back into community use. In September 2019 we began looking at ways of raising the funding we would need: around £200,000 to make the building safe and usable. Progress was slow at first as it was difficult to persuade grant funders that we would succeed, but by March 2021 we were there, with the support of 15 different funders (listed below) and a range of community fundraising activities! We also needed a business plan, which Earth Doctors, based in Shieldfield, helped us with. At last, in April this year work began to refurbish the building.
As well as raising the funding, we also needed to go through the whole range of legal requirements such as planning, building regs etc. and were lucky to have support with all of this from the Plunkett Foundation’s Power for Change grant which also helped us to find an architect. Following a rigorous tender process, MGM were selected as the builders, and the work took about 16 weeks to complete.
In addition to raising the money for the refurbishment work, we also had to cover all the fixtures & fittings we would need, including the catering kitchen, furniture and equipment for a range of activities. Another 8 funders contributed to these costs, as well as community donations and fundraising, and in-kind contributions from Gleesons.
Finally, we sought funding for the salaries for the 5 key (part-time) posts we need to run The Bank, and the costs are all covered from within the grants mentioned below. Again, we have been very grateful for the support we have received from a range of funders who have enabled these appointments to be made.
The above short film was funded by Bluestone Collaborative through their Well Newcastle Gateshead Fund to document the amazing transformation The Bank has undergone & the continuing journey into becoming a brilliant space where the people of Chopwell can learn, create & enjoy. We are still hard at work turning The Bank into our vision – as a space to socialise in the café, train in our teaching kitchen & learn new skills at workshops, start and develop local business and volunteer on a range of exciting events. We were so excited to finally open on March 3rd, 2022!
(safe coming out video)
We couldn't do it alone...
We are extremely grateful to all our funders, listed here:
Initial Support:
- Power to Change (Bright Ideas Fund)
- The Ballinger Charitable Trust
Building refurbishment:
- The Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust
- The William Leech Charity
- Co-op Local Community Fund
- The Joicey Trust
- The Gateshead Community Infrastructure Levy Fund
- The Rothley Trust
- EDF Energy Renewables – Boundary Lane Wind Farm Community Benefits fund
- North East Local Enterprise Partnership
- Sir James Knott Trust
- Tyne & Wear Community Foundation
- The National Lottery Community Fund (Reaching Communities)
- The Garfield Weston Foundation
- LGA Foundation
Running Costs- Virgin Money Foundation
- The Tudor Trust
- The Fore
- Muckle LLP
Fixtures, Fittings & Decoration
- Co-op Local Community Fund
- Tesco Community Grants (Bags of Help)
- Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation
- The Hilden Charitable Fund
- The Ballinger Charitable Trust
- The Barbour Foundation
- The Carolyn & Tony Brookes Fund (Community Foundation)
- The Platten Family Fund (via Community Foundation)
- Anonymous donation
- Gleeson Homes
Ongoing Support
- Power to Change (Powering up Fund)
- Virgin media O2 Together Fund
Community Fundraising
- Pop-up restaurant nights
- Makers Markets
- Chopwell Big Weekend
- Chopwell Mugs
- Christmas cards
- On-line auction
Little Moscow to Moscow virtual sponsored walk
- Around the World in 80 Days virtual sponsored walk
Ongoing Support
- Chopwell Masons – Derwent Lodge
- National Gardens Scheme
- Ballinger Charitable Trust
Watch our 'Bank Stories' video below to find out how our supporters have helped change lives of people living in Chopwell
Further Information
Click to read our business plan.
Planning Application
Please view the formal planning application on Gateshead Council website by clicking here.
Our volunteers
We are extremely proud of the success and impact of our volunteer programme. In 2022 we have had 185 active volunteers (excluding trustees). This is over 5% of the community in Chopwell. Here are some of our volunteers at our thank you party for them.
If you would like to find out more about becoming a volunteer please call into The Bank or email Sarah@chopwell.org.
Our volunteering programme won the national Rural Business Community Award: Rural Vision Volunteering.
79 of these volunteers have been in the café and kitchen at The Bank. 4 of those volunteers who were long term unemployed, or had never worked before, have now gone on to get permanent employment following their experience with us.
Food at The Bank: Fighting food poverty with food waste
The food poverty in Chopwell is severe and we are now getting referrals to our pay what you feel community market from the GP surgeries, Chopwell Primary School and Chopwell Community Centre.
The food we provide is surplus food from supermarkets through FareShare as well as food waste from Chopwell Co-op and other local supermarkets. We are part of a food sharing network in Newcastle-Gateshead with the Magic Hat Café, People’s Kitchen and Pickle Palace to share surplus supplies and make sure they get used up.
We have introduced a pay it forward scheme where you can buy a meal for someone else when you buy your own and put a voucher on a board that someone can use. This is extremely popular with over 100 meals a month being bought for others.
Community support
Support for Chopwell Regeneration Group is now the strongest it’s ever been with over 450 people a week using our services and facilities. In 2022 local people donated £8,845 to CRG. Given we are one of the most deprived communities in England we have been staggered by how generous people are, everyone really cares about each other and wants to do what they can.
Activity programme
Our activity programme goes from strength to strength with craft groups, our Code and Create programme for 7 to 11 year olds, cookery lessons for teenagers and our Men’s Pie Club group. We work with a range of partners from health and social care, local government, charities, cultural and educational organisations to deliver these programmes. All our activities are well attended from across the community. Please call into The Bank or check our facebook page to find out more about what’s on.
How did Chopwell Regeneration Group open The Bank?
In 2019 Gateshead Council agreed to lease the former Lloyds Bank building on Derwent Street in Chopwell to the Regeneration Group for 35 years for a ‘peppercorn’ rent, so that we could bring the building back into community use. In September 2019 we began looking at ways of raising the funding we would need: around £220,000 to make the building safe and usable. Progress was slow at first as it was difficult to persuade grant funders that we would succeed, but by March 2021 we were there, with the support of 15 different funders (listed below) and a range of community fundraising activities! We also needed a business plan, which Earth Doctors, based in Shieldfield, helped us with. At last, in April 2021 work began to refurbish the building.
As well as raising the funding, we also needed to go through the whole range of legal requirements such as planning, building regs etc. and were lucky to have support with all of this from the Plunkett Foundation’s Power for Change grant which also helped us to fund an architect. Following a rigorous tender process, MGM were selected as the builders, and the work took about 16 weeks to complete.
In addition to raising the money for the refurbishment work, we also had to cover all the fixtures & fittings we would need, including the catering kitchen, furniture and equipment for a range of activities. Another 8 funders contributed to these costs, as well as community donations and fundraising, and in-kind contributions from Gleesons. We also had amazing volunteers who helped as much as possible with getting the building ready to open.
Finally, we sought funding for the salaries for the 5 key (part-time) posts we need to run The Bank, and the costs are mostly covered from within the grants mentioned below. Again, we have been very grateful for the support we have received from a range of funders who have enabled these appointments to be made.
