The painting of a mural that a local community in West Preston have come together to raise the funding for, as well as paint, involved people of different faiths working together for the good of all in their community. This is the next step in developing a space where people of all backgrounds and faiths meet together for various events on a regular basis.

Community Worker, Kate Traynor, says, "St Stephen's church, Preston, have been running community events at Hartington Road Courts for over two years and in May 2023 agreed a licence with Preston City Council. This means the parish has use of the Hartington Pavilion (know as The Hut!) for community activities.

"Since then we have run several sports events, adult groups, one off celebrations, school holiday events for families and more recently have started Pop Up Church there as well.

"Earlier this year, a small team of volunteers decided to apply to Crowdfund Lancashire to raise the money needed to create a community mural for the shutters of Hartington Hut (Hartington Hut Community Art (spacehive.com)). The vision was to create a special piece of Community Art so that the local community know this is a space for them. Local people were involved in the design and painting of the mural to build on the a sense of pride in this area and help reduce the anti-social behaviour that can happen at Hartington Courts.

"Donations raised over £2,000 from over 50 backers, support from Lancashire Culture and Sport Fund and fundraising with a sponsored walk and community table top sale.

"We were able to work with two experienced community artists, Becki and Tasha, to host design workshops in June to gather ideas for the nature themed mural and then in early August, we invited local people to come and help paint the colourful, bright community mural on the three shutters of The Hut. Over 25 adults and 35 children were involved in painting our wonderful nature themed mural.

It was great to see our multi-cultural community coming together to create something positive, uplifting and beautiful this summer."