Harriet Marsden

Local Trust • 17th March 2022

Just keep swimming: the Mayflower Mermaid of Whitleigh

“I always had this childhood dream of being a mermaid…” Rebecca ‘Becky’ Allen was told she’d never amount to anything. But as well as a community activist in Whitleigh Big Local, national performer and mother of three, Becky has also transformed herself into a mythical creature. She’s known as the Plymouth Mayflower Mermaid.

Local Trust • 3rd March 2022

The pink ladies of Scotlands and Bushbury Hill

When I ask community worker Kim Payne to share her most enduring memory of the pandemic, she answers: “It was the way that the volunteers at the centre came together when Covid hit – this is like their heart, their baby, this is their lives.” The centre she describes is the Big Venture Centre, the “beating heart” of Scotlands and Bushbury Hill Big Local. The volunteers – all women – wear eye-catching pink shirts.

Local Trust • 10th February 2022

Like mother, like daughter: Podsmead’s family legacy

Molly Webb is crouching down by a large rock in a rose garden. The wind whips her brown fringe into her eyes, and she struggles to hold back an enthusiastic young dog as she reads the inscription on the stone’s plaque. It says: “In memory of Carmel Webb, who died 31st December 2013. Founder of Freedom Kidz and tireless worker within the Podsmead community.”

Local Trust • 2nd December 2021

Seeds of change in Brinnington

When I first see Julie Loftus, she’s standing in a garden of raised plots in Brinnington, just outside of Stockport, describing planting schedules to a large group of people. She chairs the Green Thumbs community garden initiative, which last Friday won gold in the annual Stockport Homes STAR awards for its outstanding contribution to the community. Julie is articulate, confident and energetic. It’s hard to imagine that not long ago, her depression was so crippling that she couldn’t leave the house.

Local Trust • 17th November 2021

A new Mosaic Way: Connecting the dots in SO18

‘Bringing pieces together for a happier community’. Journalist-at-large, Harriet Marsden, meets residents of SO18 Big Local for the unveiling of ‘Mosaic Way’, a creative outdoor arts project aimed at bringing the community together. Last month residents of SO18 Big Local celebrated the unveiling of a ‘legacy project’ and lockdown lifeline: a community trail of mosaics. More than 30 people in Townhill Park and Harefield and Midanbury, just outside of Southampton, have spent the past two years l

Local Trust • 11th November 2021

Christina Fox and the fairytale ending

A chance meeting in a park brought Christina Fox to Big Local – but it was her background in youth work and her own unsettled childhood that made her the right fit to volunteer. While the 22-year-old Blackpool native was playing in the neighbourhood with her niece and nephews, she was spotted by Cy Karoonian, a youth worker for the area of Revoe – known as Revoelution. “We got chatting about how when I was a teenager, I was training to be a young leader and absolutely loved it,” Christina tells

Local Trust • 4th November 2021

Big Local Reconnects

Harriet Marsden, our journalist-at-large, gives her take on Big Local’s biggest event of the year, Big Local Connects 21. A time to reconnect with each other, learn from each other, and most importantly, celebrate some of the incredible things communities around the country have achieved over the past two years.

Local Trust • 3rd November 2021

‘A place where nobody judges’: The men’s shed of Mablethorpe

Mablethorpe, a quiet seaside town, sits halfway between Grimsby and Skegness on the golden expanse of the East Lincolnshire coastline. Typical places to socialise might include the windswept beach, over a cup of tea in a warm cafe… or over a table saw in a shed.

Local Trust • 27th October 2021

Crafty Coseley: The pom-pom phenomenon

If you want to find out what’s going on in your area, you could try the usual places – local Facebook groups, shop message boards or just straightforward gossip. But in East Coseley, a Black Country village just north of Dudley, you could also pick up a pom-pom. A local initiative, Pom-Poms 4 Loneliness, is fighting the plague of isolation in a crafty way – with little baubles left like woolly bread crumbs all over the neighbourhood. The idea is to give locals an ice-breaker, something to spark

Local Trust • 27th October 2021

Crafty Coseley: The pom-pom phenomenon

If you want to find out what’s going on in your area, you could try the usual places – local Facebook groups, shop message boards or just straightforward gossip. But in East Coseley, a Black Country village just north of Dudley, you could also pick up a pom-pom. A local initiative, Pom-Poms 4 Loneliness, is fighting the plague of isolation in a crafty way – with little baubles left like woolly bread crumbs all over the neighbourhood. The idea is to give locals an ice-breaker, something to spark

Local Trust • 21st October 2021

New hub is a piece of cake

Residents of Hill Top & Caldwell Big Local gathered early in the summer to celebrate the grand opening of a new community hub. The chair of the partnership, Ann Cox, joined by mayor of Nuneaton, Cllr Rob Tromans, and Local Trust chief executive Matt Leach, cut the ribbon to officially declare the space open. Photographers, council reps and local residents came together under a green marquee to watch as Ann – a small laughing woman sporting HTC’s navy shirt and dwarfed between the two men – desc

Local Trust • 14th October 2021

Pride of the Black Country: The award-winning teens of Grace Mary to Lion Farm

When you picture volunteers, you might imagine someone retired: a parent or grandparent with the wisdom, experience and time to dedicate to helping their local area. But on a high hill in the Black Country, about halfway between Wolverhampton and Birmingham, an award-winning group of young people are challenging that stereotype.

Local Trust • 6th October 2021

A Star park is born

In Whitleigh, a post-war housing estate in north Plymouth that overlooks the city from a hill, a crop circle has appeared. Shrouded by dense green woodland, a new pocket park and play area seems left behind by forest fairies. But the project was the result of a two-year combined effort between Whitleigh Big Local, the council, the local schools – and the ribbon was cut by a real-life Star. The local resident and member of community group Whitleigh Big Local, known as Star, stands out against th

Local Trust • 29th June 2021

Two months in the life of 's journalist-at-large

Harriet Marsden, Local Trust’s new journalist-at-large, has spent two months travelling to Big Local areas and talking to communities about what they have been doing. Could Harriet be heading to your Big Local area next? When people ask me how my job is going, I don’t know where to begin. Do I start with knitted bollard covers in East Coseley? Proud men of the Black Country learning to cook from Pink Ladies? World-class street art from Cheltenham to Walthamstow? How to describe the shapeshifti

Local Trust • 20th April 2021

Meet our new journalist-at-large Harriet Marsden

Everybody has a story, and every journalist loves to hear one. That’s why I’m thrilled to have been chosen as Local Trust’s new ‘journalist-at-large’, because I’ll be able to spend a whole year travelling around the country and hearing the most interesting ones.