Black Park Chapel Project

Black Park is an old mining village, situated less than two miles from the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct World Heritage Site set in a rural area just outside of Chirk, North Wales and birthplace and ancestral home of former Deputy Prime-Minister John Prescott and Wales first international football star Billy Meredith. The village consists of approximately 80 residential homes, a dairy farm, former Methodist Chapel, Community Centre and a small shop in a close-knit community with a strong reputation for caring for every one of its residents. Since the Colliery closed in 1949, the whole village has seen a steady but significant decline resulting decades later in the great need for regeneration and a lack of focus for the community, with many residents feeling that they were part of a neglected/forgotten community and that nothing was ever going to change, the inevitable sense of despondency followed.

However, this was about to change, "Parkers" as they are known locally are a special breed. The Chapel closed its doors for services in June 2005 and the building was bought by a local resident with strong family connections to the Chapel in a sealed bid auction in 2009, thus preventing its further delapidation and or being demolished and saving it for the benefit of the whole community. The Chapel together with the management committee of the adjacent community centre, which itself was on the verge of shutting its doors for good in early 2010, have begun a radical programme of community revitalisation from within - in all senses, the community decided to "help itself" and some of the good feeling has started to return. This was then strengthened by the re-opening in October 2010 of the old shop which had been closed for 15 years.

Black Park Chapel is a historic building, built by and paid for solely from miners wages at Black Park Colliery and is the last tangible link with the industrial heritage of the area. Once works are complete, the Chapel which has fabulous acoustics will provide an indoor venue with facilities for music, drama, film and dance along with a permanent exhibition space depicting local life and its heritage. The project will also be filling a gap in local and regional provision for arts related activities for vulnerable groups, in particular for people with an Autistic Spectrum Condition.

The Chapel, having gained full planning permission for change of use in February 2011, needed major improvement works to make it safe and fit for purpose and Black Park Chapel Trust Limited made several grant applications for the necessary works. The building is now undergoing major refurbishment, with a sizeable extension to the rear of the building. Progress on building works can be seen here.