Welcome to our new Blog all about Shabang’s latest adventure …
In November 2017 Shabang acquired the lease of a disused Baptist Chapel in Slaithwaite with the view to restoring it and opening it as a new Creative Centre for our ever-growing Shabang family.
The journey to date has been interesting! The chapel is Grade 2 listed and it took us two years to get architectural plans, Listed Building Consent and Planning Permission to begin the project.
Of course we also needed to raise the considerable funds to get the work started so over the past two years this is exactly what we have been up to – in between delivering our programme of creative work. In the world of public funding you need to develop a thick skin and be prepared to put hours of work into a grant application, only to receive the rejection email – often without any accompanying feedback. However, a couple of old tortoises like us are well armoured for such disappointments and now, two and a half years later work has begun and we are moving forward.
A grant from the National Lottery Fund for Heritage was awarded, on our second attempt, and together with grants from a patchwork of other funders including the Postcode Lottery and Morrisons Community Fund we have embarked on the journey of converting and renovating this beautiful 19th century chapel into a creative centre for all Shabangers past present and future!
Take a look at this – captured for a moment in time in May 2020 …
![ef557747-0445-e07a-a318-aa899d8f9544[1]](https://www.shabang.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/ef557747-0445-e07a-a318-aa899d8f95441-768x1024-394x330.jpg "ef557747-0445-e07a-a318-aa899d8f9544[1]")
