04 Royston First | UPDATE
Market Stalls Sometime during the autumn, new stalls will appear on Royston Market. The current stalls are somewhat long in the tooth and looking a bit tired. We have reached the point where patching them up is no longer feasible/desirable. Based on the market’s solid performance in maintaining a good selection of traders during this year and thereby maintaining its status as a key attractor to the town centre, Royston First proposed contributing funds to the purchase of some new stalls. We are pleased to report that not only did Royston Town Council approve of our ideas but immediately agreed to match fund from the markets reserve fund thus enabling the purchase of a complete new market. You might think that overcoming the big challenge (i.e. raising the funds) would ensure everything else falls into place immediately. However ‘the devil is in the detail’ – and in this instance, most of the summer has been spent on the detail! Nonetheless, with new handling procedures,
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storage plans, billing system, security, and the colour scheme sorted out … we’re just about ready to go.
Royston First UPDATE - Su mmer/Autu mn
Proposed design for the market stall
So around about October time there’ll be one more reason to visit Royston Market on a Wednesday or Saturday (beyond the fact that you can get vegetables fresh from New Covent Garden that morning, fresh cut flowers and plants straight from the nursery, local fresh bread, fresh meat, etc. etc.)
Royston Town Trail
Having experience of the previous awards ‘running out of steam’, we were aware of the significant administrative burden of delivering such an event. Accordingly, Royston First agreed to underwrite the cost of a (very) part-time, freelance event organiser to assist the Chamber in their Join us on endeavours. We will also be ensuring that a Thursday suitably smart print programme will be available October 13th on the night.
The Heath Club
See you there!
Royston F1rst c/o Town Hall Melbourn Street Royston SG8 7DA t 01763 878 242 e info@roystonfirst.com
Town Trail market plaque
Many of you may have noticed triangular brass plaques set into various pavements around the centre of Royston. Hopefully many of you will know that these denote the Royston Trail – a guided tour around the many historic sites and buildings in the town centre. The Town Trail Guide is just the latest in a growing suite of printed materials being produced by Royston First to support visitors to our town.
Every now and then a new initiative comes along that is deserving of support.
As it was in the past with such ideas as the revival of the Arts Festival and the launch of Open Secrets, so we believe it is with the Chamber of Commerce’s plans to reinstate the Royston Business Awards ( www.roystonchamber.org/royston-business-awards )
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These include an Accommodation Guide, a Guide to Clubs & Associations (an important feature of Royston life) and two up-to-date maps (one town centre, one entire town) to which we own the copyright – enabling us to reproduce/ distribute them at will.
Picture Palace Show Reel If you’ve been to the Royston Picture Palace recently, (which we hope you have), you will have seen our new show reel featuring some of the key attractions within Royston. The film is designed to encourage outsiders to visit Royston, whilst at the same time reminding residents that they live in an active and attractive town. Feature films show every Friday and Saturday in a state-of-the-art digital cinema – programme details available at www.roystonpicturepalace.org.uk
Unless you’ve recently attempted the Trail, you probably won’t know that various resurfacings and redevelopments had taken their toll on the trail markers (there were several missing). Accordingly, Royston First set about restoring the trail, to its former glory.
Collectively these items support a tourism initiative that is being worked on for next year and will be anchored by the Visitor Information Centre we have built in the Library.
After a lengthy period spent tracking down replacement plaques, tracing the original contractor, and obtaining the necessary permissions … we can now announce that, since early July, the Royston Town Trail is once again complete. Hurray! In conjunction with the restoration of the physical Trail, we also set about refreshing/updating the printed booklet that guides visitors around the town and supplies the narrative that supports the 31 trail markers.
This work has also been completed and new guides are available from the Visitor Information Centre in the Library, the Town Hall and Royston Museum.