Students have great expectations for town (From Gazette & Herald)

Students have great expectations for town

11:17am Thursday 26th July 2007

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THE campaign for Malton to make more of its links to Charles Dickens is set for a boost with the help of some young entrepreneurs.

Students from Norton College and Malton School will be teaming up to take part in an enterprise project to develop the profile of tourism in the area through its connection to the great author.

The project is part of the extended schools programme, and will be co-ordinated by Ava Rowlands.

"It's really exciting and a great way of learning for the students, because they will actually see some real results from their work, " she said.

"We have already secured an invitation to a full Ryedale District Council meeting to discuss working in partnership with them, and work will start in earnest when the new term starts in September."

Meanwhile, the group set up to help develop Malton and Norton has been moving forward with its plans to create a museum in the office which was Charles Dickens's inspiration for the counting house of Scrooge in Chancery Lane.

Carl Wain, chairman of the group Thrive, said it had had a very positive letter from Roddy Bushell, Fitzwilliam Estate manager, regarding their proposals, and they were hoping to meet with him within a fortnight.

"That will be quite a pivotal meeting in terms of how things move forward. The great thing is that we've had a very positive response from them and if we feel we can move forward then we'll make some grant applications after that meeting, " he said.

"To set up a museum we need a lot of funding.

The initial idea is to raise enough money through grants to employ a museum manager to run the museum, and make contact with the Dickens World museum in Kent to try to gain support so that we can share pieces in the way that art galleries do.

"The most important thing is that we get the Fitzwilliam Estate totally signed up to the idea, then the next priority is the grant funding.

People I've spoken to are quite confident we would be successful because there is a lot of money available for museums."

The lower floor of the building is currently being used to store artefacts belonging to Malton Museum, so an alternative storage space would need to be found for that, he added.

He said the group was focussing on the museum, and although there had been lots of positive talk about the idea of a Dickens Festival, volunteers were yet to come forward to form a sub committee to organise this.

In the short term, Thrive is concentrating on a scheme to encourage shops and businesses in Malton and Norton to open on Sundays - Thrive on Sundays.

Carl and other members will be talking to traders, getting them to sign up to the idea, so that they can produce a flyer to distribute to households in time for a pilot scheme around September.

If you would like to sign up to Thrive on Sunday, can contact Carl at Thrive (driving forward change for Malton & Norton), 23 Commercial Street, Norton, Malton, YO17 9HX, or email: thrive@hotmail.co.uk

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