A Year in the Life of the Mansion

As the old saying sort of goes, time flies when you're hard at work regenerating a centuries-old Mansion House...

Since we signed the 125-year lease on the Mansion over a year ago in September 2014, we've been doing a lot of reading, putting on a range of special events, welcoming and training volunteers and generating interest amongst the local community. But how much is 'a lot'?

The figures below detail what we've been up to in our first year as official lease owners at Calderstones:

From 9th September 2014 to 8th September 2015 we have:

• delivered weekly shared reading groups to 20,553 people, giving an average of 395 people reached through shared reading each week
• reached 350 South Liverpool and local residents to promote shared reading at Calderstones
• held 3 public consultation events with a view to formalising an advisory group for local residents to advise on the development of the Premises
• ran a programme of public literary events, involving 5 free events and 3 paid events, welcoming along 4,600 people in attendance
• published four What's On at Calderstones guides, detailing the events happening at the Mansion in quarterly periods
• delivered 17 training courses supporting shared reading and wellbeing amongst readers
• recruited 54 volunteers to support the work we're doing at Calderstones
• recruited an additional 35 paid employees to our staff team at Calderstones
• ran weekly public heritage tours detailing the history of the Mansion, attracting 890 visitors in the past year
• displayed 44 exhibtions of local artists and organisations in The Reader Gallery
• supported three social enterprise projects as part of the Calderstones site: The Reader Cafe, The Reader Ice Cream Parlour and the Storybarn
• developed a range of educational activities relating to the Mansion, Park and the Calderstones, working with partners including Liverpool School Improvement to highlight the benefits that can be gained from using Calderstones Park to enhance schools' curriculum and facilitate learning. So far we have worked with 11 schools specifically around the Calderstones and Stone Age activity

An amazing list of stats, which also means we have surpassed many of the numbers originally set out for our aims and objectives in our first two years. Incredible!

You can read more about the wonderful things that have happened in our first year at the Mansion by downloading The Reader's Annual Report 2014-15, which has a special section dedicated to the goings-on at Calderstones.