December 7, 2023

MCO Festive Season Opening

The Community Office will close on Saturday 23rd December and re-open on Monday 1st January 2024.

November 30, 2023

Wellbeing Walk (Longer)

Next Week – 5 December

  • In addition to our Strollers Weekly Town Walk, we now have a repertoire of longer, brisker walks. 
  • Tuesday’s walk: Our final long walk of the year follows the River Ure to the Fisherman’s Hut then up through the Marfield Wetlands where we will have the opportunity to visit the hides and hopefully see some interesting birdlife. 
  • We will follow the circuit around the lakes and then walk back through the fields towards the allotments and back into town – don’t forget your binoculars and a hot drink!

All the walks start at 10:10 for 10:15 at the MCO office in the Little Market Place and go out into the beautiful countryside around Masham.

November 16, 2023

We’re hiring!

Role: Information Services Coordinator

Hours: 26 hours per week

Salary: £22,409 FTE

Do you know Masham and the surrounding area well? Are you a people person? If you have a curious mind and work well in a busy environment, this could be the job for you!

We’re recruiting for an Information and Services Coordinator, responsible for the customer facing provision of information in our busy hub at the heart of Masham. You will deal with enquiries across a wide range of services, process sales and service transactions and be responsible for coordinating, training, supporting and motivating our essential team of volunteers on the front desk.

We’re a small charity making a big difference to our local community and can offer you a rewarding role within a friendly and compassionate team.

For further details, download the job description and application pack. For more information or an informal chat, contact Beth or Hayley on 01765 680200.

Closing date: 17th December 2023 (interviews: 10th January 2024)

Download Job Description

Download Application Form

November 8, 2023

MCO AGM 2023

Mashamshire Community Office AGM was held on Tuesday 28th November at 6:00 pm, in the Small Hall, in the Town Hall, Masham.

Find a copy of the following items below:

Agenda

Previous minutes

Proposed constitutional changes

Copy of the 2022-2023 Accounts and Treasurers Report

Presentation

October 17, 2023

Aged 18-30 and care about your community? We want you!

We want Mashamshire Community Office to better represent the voice of younger people so that our services are relevant and meet the needs of our community. To help us do this, we are recruiting to a shadow board that can feed into trustees and provide a fresh perspective, challenging our current thinking. If you or anyone you know is aged 18-30 years and would like to contribute to making Masham and the surrounding villages we represent, a better place to live and visit, please get in touch.

You will need to commit 2 hours a month to the role. It’s a great way to gain experience and provides an opportunity for you to make positive change in your own community!

To register your interest in this volunteer post, please complete an Expression of Interest form.

If you’d like to visit us or want more information, feel free to pop in (we’re open Mon-Sat 10am-3pm) or DM us via Instagram or Facebook.

Learn more about who we are and what we do!

August 14, 2023

PLEASE SUPPORT US

We’re delighted that we have raised enough money to purchase the Old Police House to secure our future at the heart of Masham where we have been operating for over 20 years as a local, independent charity serving our community! Thank you to everyone that has made this possible!

We’re a small team with a big heart and a can-do attitude and we want to continue providing many of our services, supporting and helping advocate for our community long into the future.

WAYS TO DONATE

Your support will enable us to continue to be be the glue that connects and strengthens our rural community. We only have just over 2 FTE paid staff but with the help of our volunteers, who contributed 8,500 hours last year alone, we support more than 80 local community groups and 100 local businesses; every year we respond to over 10,000 visitor enquiries and 1,000 resident enquiries and requests for help. With your support we aim to be here to respond to community needs with new initiatives well into the future.

You can us help by:

  • Making a one off donation online, via JustGiving. Click Make a Donation below and choose an amount.

  • Supporting us with a monthly contribution, via Direct Debit. However small, setting up a Direct Debit via the JustGiving would be a huge help. Click Make a Donation below and then select MONTHLY.

  • You could raise money by getting sponsorship for a personal challenge. Click Fundraise for Us below to log into the JustGiving website and create a fundraising page to share with your friends and family. You can create a new login if you don’t have one already.
  • If you prefer not to donate online, you can always call into the office and we can personally accept your donation, or provide the information you need to set up a standing order.

  • Volunteer to help at our MCO Forever fundraising events – we’re a fun bunch, and helpers of all kinds are always welcome! Please call 01765 680200 or email info@visitmasham.com.

  • Join our 100 club!

VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES

If you have any spare time and skills or enthusiasm to give, we’d love to hear from you. We have regular volunteering opportunities, but not everyone has time to give on a regular basis. Ad hoc help with short term activities is always useful too – anything from help at events to marketing or copywriting, or help with social media. Help can come in smaller packages and still make a big difference!

If you have skills and a bit of time to spare, we’d love to hear from you. Read more about volunteering here.

WE WANT YOUR IDEAS

We are at the heart of the community in Mashamshire, but we don’t pretend to have it all covered and we certainly don’t have the resources to complete the whole picture. But we do know how to get things moving. So, if there’s something you really care about, if you have an idea for something you think you could do locally, maybe we can help you get it off the ground. Whatever gets you going, whatever you care about… From reducing carbon emissions and plastic waste, to improving the look and feel of where we live, from providing activities for young people to doing something to alleviate the loneliness of older or isolated people. If you have an idea that would benefit Masham, your community, or even your road, with a bit of support, maybe you can make it happen.

Please get in touch and share your ideas.

Masham Community Office
7 Little Market Place
Masham, HG4 4DY

Tel: 01765 680200
Email: info@visitmasham.com

Saturday Help Needed!

Masham is a gorgeous place to visit and explore and we need volunteers to help inform our visitors on busy Saturdays so that they unlock all that we have to offer. Saturdays are a busy day at Mashamshire Community Office…and we need help.

We get a lot done for remarkably little at Mashamshire Community Office, thanks to the time and energy of volunteers. We are here to look after the needs of our lovely community, the businesses in Masham and the surrounding area and tourists and visitors too. We’re a hub of activity every day but Saturday’s are one of our busiest days and likely to get busier. Volunteers are essential to enable us to open and carry out this vital role for our town.

Our usual opening hours are 10AM till 3PM. Our Service Delivery Officer is on hand at all times on a Saturday, but he can’t manage all of this activity alone. We need a volunteer helper on hand to support him. The day is split between two shifts – 10AM till 12.30PM and 12.30PM till 3.00PM. If you have a couple of hours to spare on a Saturday, and would like to be involved and help us support Masham, please get in touch with the office, on 01765 680200 or email info@visitmasham.com.

Our busy office buzzes every day with…

  • people coming and going to the Community Library
  • folk needing access to the internet or some photocopying or laminating done
  • locals or visitors buying tickets for upcoming events, cinema or performances at the Town Hall
  • people at a loose end, looking for a jigsaw or second hand book from our collections
  • shoppers browsing our small gallery, showcasing work for sale by local artists
  • visitors in need of advice and information on places to visit, eat or stay
  • information on local transport options or how to get to places

August 6, 2023

Masham Strollers Weekly Walk

Join Ramblers Wellbeing Walks Masham Strollers for short, local and accessible walks to help you get more active. In addition to our Strollers Weekly Town Walk, we now have a monthly longer, brisker walk around the beautiful countryside of Masham. For more information, please follow the relevant link below.

Click here to find out about our weekly walk.

Click here to find out about our brisk monthly walk.

May 24, 2023

Community on Track to Save Old Police Building by August 2023

It has almost been a year since Mashamshire Community Office (MCO) held their initial public meeting back in June 2022 to share the news that they had been given the opportunity to purchase the Old Police House in Masham, a place the charity had been based for over 20 years. £215,000 was the figure were set to raise, and the weight lay heavy with the team at MCO, all of whom are incredibly passionate about the difference the charity makes in their local community however to date they’ve raised £182,698.69 and are aiming to complete the purchase in August 2023.

Hayley Jackson, MCO Manager says,

“Over the past 20 years MCO has diversified and adapted our offering to support the community in times of need such as through COVID. This past year we’ve been on a journey to promote our services and actively share and shout about what we do and the difference we make. Our footprint across Mashamshire reaches far and wide and the impact our small organisation has on many local people has come washing back over us in waves of support for which we are overwhelmingly grateful. Volunteers and staff have gone above and beyond, our fundraising team have outdone themselves with the variety of activities on offer this year from 100 clubs to cow pat competitions (there is now a swear jar on the desk in the office for anyone that even mentions the words cow pat!) The business community have been amazing in so many ways from in-kind gestures to running events in aid of MCO and making considerable financial donations. Individuals have come forward to make donations, offer help and share stories of how MCO have helped them in the past.

Going through the process of fundraising for the Community Office building over this past year has brought people together in such an amazing way. Our community have driven this fundraising effort, people feel pride and ownership over this building, they value what our charity does here in Masham and what a central role we play in supporting our rural community. We knew it was important, but we’ve been able to see just how much it’s at the heart of the community and how much people care. The people of Masham see it as their building, and it’s really important to them that we retain it for the future.”

Once the traditional 19th century stone building is purchased, plans are afoot to invest in making it a more energy efficient and environmentally sustainable space for all to enjoy.

The team have some great fundraising events coming up and a live silent auction with some fantastic artwork to bid for so there’s still time to get involved to help get them over the line ready for the purchase in August.

Live online art auction – closes 11th August 2023

Ways to donate: www.visitmasham.com/want-to-support-your-community/

Special thanks to our supporters: www.visitmasham.com/our-supporters

What people say about us

“[MCO] Provides a vehicle to retain MASHAM as a caring community not just a group of houses as most towns and villages”

“As a retired and disabled individual volunteering gives me purpose, gets me out of the house, enables interaction with others and makes me feel useful.”

“We moved to Masham 1 year ago and the first place we visited was the MCO, we have been able to access all manor of activities and help obtained by the MCO and the regular information it sends out.”

“Excellent hub for the community to feel involved with each other, the community and I feel that MCO is vital for the elderly and the vulnerable.”

“It’s a community hub which can mobilise help when needed eg all the various ways help was given during Covid. It is somewhere where people can come for companionship, help, advice and a friendly face.”

“There is always someone there, who can be approached, and if they don’t know the answer they will find it out”

Charity Tractor Run 500 Miles!

Helen Benson, who is a volunteer for the farming charity, FCN, is aiming to complete her 500 plus mile challenge in just nine days. Her route, from Mart to Mart will take in the Moors and Dales, Wolds and Plains of Yorkshire.  The marts are to include:  Leyburn, Pateley Bridge, Darlington, Ruswarp, Malton, York, Hull, Selby, Holmfirth, Otley, Skipton, Bentham, Hawes, Northallerton and Thirsk.

Along the way, she hopes to be joined by others in the local farming community – partly to keep her company and partly to raise money for FCN – a charity that offers essential support to farmers and their families in times of difficulty and The Sepsis Trust which  (UKST) exists to fight this life-threatening condition, stop preventable deaths and support those affected by sepsis.

This tractor run is in memory of 26 year old Yorkshire born and bred Hannah Brown, who passed away so suddenly of Sepsis.  She was a Mother, Daughter, Fiancée, and Friend to literally thousands of farmers and their families up and down the country.

“Masham Community Office provides so many facilities for Masham and district residents and businesses – too many to mention.  We are extremely fortunate and I am personally indebted to be hosted on the website during my Mart to Mart Tractor Run.  Thank you very much Masham Community Office and don’t forget everyone, we need to keep this marvellous service going.  Helen”

If you’d like to help Mashamshire Community Office in their quest to purchase the Police building (to ensure the future of the services they offer) you can support them here.

For more details and to view her progress, click here.

Best of luck Helen from MCO!

1 8