Welcome to the Whitley Bay 'Our Bigger Story' website. This is part of the multi media evaluation of 15 Big Local areas in England. The website is an opportunity to follow what is changing in Whitley Bay as a result of Big Local over a ten year period.
The aim of the website is to share the learning from everything that is happening in Whitley Bay with other Big Local areas and highlight what works in communities with a wider audience of practitioners and policy makers
A community group has joined forces in lockdown to knit a special birthday tribute to the Tyne and Wear Metro. The knitters took up their needles and wool to create a colourful 12ft Metro carriage, piece by piece - celebrating the network's 40th anniversary. More than 30 volunteers worked on each individual piece, before it was carefully sewn together by local artist Kelly Sheridan. Whitley Bay Big Local's Community Development worker, Sarah Sutton, directed the Stakeholder Relations Team at Nexus, to the Knit and Natter Group to undertake the project, which has culminated with their woollen wonder going on public display at the art gallery in Tynemouth Metro station. Nexus said that the finished work was a wonderful tribute to Metro's 40 years. It was one of only a few anniversary events to come to fruition due to lockdown: "Metro is part of everyday life in the communities that it serves, so it's great to see a local group coming together to showcase their talents, despite all of the challenges posed by lockdown. ... Our iconic Metro train has been so carefully recreated in wool by a group of knitters who have had to rely on meeting up over Zoom calls during the pandemic. Over 30 local people collected packs to take home to create one of the many panels that would be joined to create the knitted Metro, complete with is iconic colour schemes from the down the years. Local Artist Kelly Sheridan came into to pull the project together as part of Whitley Bay Big Local's Creative Civic Change project. "It's been a great effort, bringing local people together in a creative way during lockdown."