Last updated 19:43, Thursday, 24 April 2008

MARYPORT’S community, arts and education centre was officially opened on Monday.

The Settlement, on High Street, has been closed for six years and former chairwoman, Pauline Sharp, paid tribute to those who refused to take the easy way out and sell it to a property developer when it seemed that it had no future.

Instead, she said, the new board had worked tirelessly to gain the funding for an £800,000 makeover and The Settlement had risen from the ashes like a phoenix.

Mrs Sharp, who chaired the trustees from 1988 to 2003, said that in the end the trustees had not been able to secure any funding.

She added that selling would have been an easy option at that stage but even though there seemed to be no future, the board handed over to a new board and five years later, the result of that decision was there for all to see.

She added: “I am delighted. The way it has been refurbished, so in keeping with the old house that this used to be.

“Everything is beautiful and there is so much happening here.”

Emer Clarke, new Learning and Skills Council executive director, said the opening of The Settlement was her first visit to Maryport.

She spoke of the history of the house, which had at one time been the dowager house for the matriarch of the Senhouse family. It was opened as an education settlement in the 1930s and was later taken over by the Society of Friends.

She said the refurbishment had been sensitively handled through money from the Learning and Skills Council, the Northwest Development Agency, West Lakes Renaissance and the European Development Fund.

Guests at Monday’s opening were welcomed by the new chairman, Lawrence Hilland. Also there was the former treasurer, Norman Greggains.

The Settlement was opened to the public on Saturday with activities for children.

Several courses and groups are already using the Settlement.

Age Concern will meet there two days a week and Buddhist monks from Carlisle have booked days to teach meditation. Art classes are already in progress.

A Saturday Art Club for seven to 13-year-olds starts tomorrow and it will run every other week during term time.

For more information, or to book a place at the club, contact the Settlement on 01900 817421 or Jane on 07742 655676.