UK Town of Culture bid

The UK Town of Culture is a new government sponsored competition. Inspired by the success of the UK City of Culture, which is a proven model for cultural placemaking, this competition aims to spotlight the cultural contribution of towns to our national story.

Towns across the UK are invited to enter to showcase original storytelling, and empowering, accessible culture. To make the competition inclusive to all towns, there will be small, medium and large-size category winners and from these, an overall UK Town of Culture winner will be selected. The winning town will be awarded £3 million to deliver a cultural programme in 2028 of around six months. Additionally, the two finalists from their category will receive £250,000 each to deliver elements of their bid.

The Town Council is currently drawing together an initial expression of interest for the small town category, to meet the end of March deadline. Wirksworth clearly has a rich and significant cultural history and if this initial bid is successful, we will be approaching groups, businesses and individuals across the community to draw on their knowledge and skills to contribute to the final proposal.

In the meantime, everyone is invited to a drop-in community meeting to find out a little more and to share their initial thoughts. Please come along, if you can, to the Memorial Hall on Thursday 26th February between 4pm – 7pm.

We look forward to keeping you updated via this page and our Facebook page.

Stoney Wood

Stoney Wood is Wirksworth’s Millennium woodland planted in the area recovered from Stonecroft Quarry. The land on which the wood is planted was donated by Tarmac Ltd to Wirksworth Town Council. The original planting was started by Tarmac but later sections were planted by local adults and children in a project …

Hiring the Hall

We have two buildings with rooms to hire on an hourly basis, and the newly renovated Fanny Shaw’s Community Building (FSCB) which is operated on a key loan system.

Town Hall:- The Main Hall is large, suitable for a variety of uses – dance, exercise, large meeting space, wedding reception, family parties, musical events, etc, whilst other rooms – the Club Room, Ante Room, Council Chamber, are suited to smaller classes/groups. All rooms are available for hire during the day & evening during week days & weekends.

Memorial Hall:- the Hall & Kitchen are available to hire for meetings, parties, fayres, events and classes/groups, during the day & evening during week days and weekends.

Fanny Shaw’s:- Community building key available free of charge for use by groups such as: parents, schools, nurseries, scouts & not-for-profit groups holding events on the park.

Council Meetings

Environment & Town Affairs
(Usually held on the first Monday of the month)
Finance, Buildings & Personnel
(Usually held on the second Monday of the month)
Town Council Meeting
(Usually held on the third Monday of the month)