Community funding

Torrs Hydro would like to award some more funds to our community over the next few weeks.

If you are part of a New Mills based group or club and would like to apply for a small grant please email Torrs Hydro at sean@torrshydro.org

It will be good to hear what you would use the money for and how this will benefit our local community.



Earlier this year funding was given to the following groups :

New Mills Community Orchard
New Mills Secondary School Art department
New Mills Heritage Centre
Spring Bank Arts
New Mills Volunteer Centre

Competition winners

There were several winners to Archie's competition to guess how many cups of tea he had produced power for - the answer was at the end of the video to 'Archie' written and performed by New Mills own Write Van men

Prizes (signed copies of Goodbye Watford Bridge Road) - will be in the post to the winners next week.

Competition time for 'Archie'

To celebrate a fantastic New Mills festival and seeing Archie bathed in green and red light on Saturday evening we are going to have a little competition.

The two lucky winners will get signed copies (colectors items already) of Goodbye Watford Bridge Road the CD by Write Van Men that contains the worlds first song about a community owned and run Hydro scheme.

All you have to do is visit www.goodbyewatfordbridgeroad.blogspot.com listen to the the song about Archie and somewhere in the video it tells you how many cups of tea Archie could have made since starting production.

Answers via email only to sean@torrshydro.org - winners will be drawn out of a purple coloured top hat in 10 days time

Good luck

A busy weekend ahead

Message in a Bottle at Torrs Hydro

This weekend will see up to 5,000 people walk past Archie as part of the New Mills festival lantern parade the climax of an amazing festival of art, music and much much more besides.

Before the lantern parade there will be lots going on down at the Hydro - we have an open day planned from 1-3pm where you can come and take a look behind the scenes, walk down the fish pass and take a look inside the engine house and understand how Archie works.

Artist Amanda Whewell will be on site to talk about the installation 'Message in a Bottle' that is currently sited down at the Hydro as part of the New Mills festival.

...Round and round and round.....

In the words of Write Van Men Archie is going round and round again www.goodbyewatfordbridgeroad.blogspot.com

After a few day rest and a few hours hard work from the Directors and volunteers Archie is back in business.

 Several hundredweight of stone were moved and once again this Coop lights shine bright.

Archie - Goodbye Watford Bridge Road

Here's the song everyone is talking about - some great lyrics and fantastic footage of Archie - more information on the project which forms part of New Mills festival can be found here

Goodbye Watford Bridge Road

You know how Archie likes breaking records, well this time he has had one made about him - its one of he catchiest tunes we've heard n a long time.

It's a side project of present, former and occasional White Van Man members The Twad, Frank Seddon, Tony Audenshaw, Bernard Humphrey, John Patterson and guests under the name Write Van Men.

Twad, Frank, Tony and Bernard have written twenty songs with original music, all about the people, places and incidents of New Mills in the High Peak of Derbyshire.

Twelve of the songs will be released on a cd which will be available only in New Mills at Priscillla's, Bartons and Bryan the butchers. The songs will also have a digital release on the 14 records label on iTunes.

The project is part of New Mills Festival 2012 and there will be a live performance of all twenty songs at Spring Bank Arts Centre on Sunday September 23rd - but be quick as here's only a few left and these much sought after tickets can be found in John Bartons emporium in New Mills.

There's so much interest with the album that lead singer Tony is writing a blog which is a great insight into the band, the album and the strange goings on that make New Mills such a special place.