Activities and Events
Local and Family History meetings
Castleford Local and Family History meetings are held on the first Monday of the
month, 2.00-3.30pm; Castleford Library. Full list of dates.
2019
4
February - Local schools
4 March - The Templars and Temple Newsam
1 April - Overcoming brickwalls
Past Events
Past events organised by Friends of Castleford Library. FOCAL, so passionate about our local library that we befriended it.
In February 2018 we FOCAL celebrated our 20th anniversary. Cakes and refreshments along with past and present members and staff made for a great celebration.
The friends would like to thank Wakefield Council for their support by awarding us two Neighbourhood Improvement Grants in 2017.
The first award was to purchase flowering hanging baskets which were part of the Castleford In Bloom 2017.
The second was used to purchase a wall mounted visual display unit, placed in the fiction section of the library. It will show images from the photographs collection, local history information and a host of other information relative to the library.
We would like to thank the Wakefield Council, Ward 4 for their support in awarding us a grant of £496 towards purchasing equipment for the Active Minds Craft group which meets every Monday morning 10.30am-12.00pm, why not come along and get crafting.
Val Wood Visit
Val Wood is a British author of historical romance novels. She has written over 20 novels, all set in and around the city of Kingston Upon Hull. Val kindly visited us at Castleford Library on Tuesday 17th October. It's not her first visit she came to the library about 10 ten years ago and promised to return.
Castleford Childrens Library Mural
Prior to the opening of the new Castleford Forum in 2013, which contains the town's library, FOCAL undertook a series of ways to raise funds, because we wanted to donate some sort of art work to adorn the plane walls of the new children's library in the new building.
We decided a mural would work well. We consulted with library manager Andy Wright and he recommended we visit the Wakefield library at Wakefield One, a new public building that houses the city museum and library.
On our visit we were impressed with the large art mural that was printed onto a very high quality wallpaper then pasted onto the wall. It was produced by local school children and artist and children's book illustrator Lynne Chapman. It was just the thing we wanted in our library.
We and the library commissioned Lynne Chapman to design and produce a mural for Castleford. Read more here. Below are links to Lynne's Blog
I've Started Work on My New Mural
The Mural is Being Installed This Week!
Castleford Children's Library Mural - at Last!
Tigers Climbing the Bookshelves: Another Mural!
Run, Librarians, Run!
Lynne Chapman - An Illustrator's Life For Me! blog.
Ian Clayton - A Writer's Workshop
Open to all who want to have a go at telling their own story
Castleford Library, Friday 5th
August
10am -4.30pm
PDF Poster
Castleford on Camera
Thirty different local groups and individuals took part in capturing Castleford life in the year 2000 on film. The project produced 900 photographs and they are now a key part of the library archive.
Vision of Castleford
FOCAL commissioned an artist to work with two community groups, who produced their own piece of work. Also created were three 3D-fibreglass plaques depicting the last two thousand year history of Castleford, which were on permanent display within the library.
Poetry Book
In May 2001 FOCAL welcomed local school children to workshops at the library to create poetry on the theme of friends. Over 100 poems were submitted. Many were included in a small poetry book produced by FOCAL called Friends.
Mug Art
To celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002, in collaboration with FOCAL, a local pottery and the library, school children produced celebratory mugs. This was a project that enabled children to have fun and be creative. They painted their own design on their very own unique Coronation mugs.
Castleford - The Inside Story
The general public took part in a photographic competition and workshop. Over 600 photographs were submitted of the interior of buildings in Castleford, such as houses, shops, factories, work places etc. They are a contemporary record of Castleford and are now part of the library archives.
Annual Christmas Coffee Morning/Events
FOCAL members provide refreshments while Redhill Junior School entertain the library users. Carols, both old and new, are excellent and are enjoyed by all.
Other events such as - Poetry evenings, historical talks, slide shows and local author nights, crafts days, fundraising have all been popular activities enjoyed by the public withing the library.