Oswestry market stall is music to the ears of charities

Oswestry’s Charity Market will be at the town's Bailey Head from 9am on Friday.

Among several charities, Music MOB will be providing information about its local activities and its plans to enhance music provision in local state schools.

Music MOB – Music Matters in Oswestry and the Borderland – is the brainchild of former town councillor and business owner Mike Coppock, who is on the committee for the Oswestry Youth Music Festival.

Mike said he could not help noticing that the proportion of entries in the festival from children in local state schools was diminishing year on year.

"The aim of Music MOB is to support free instrumental and vocal lessons for children whose families may not have the means to provide them," trustee Sian Tasker said.

"Although the lessons will take place in school, there will be no cost to schools or families for either the teaching or the instrument hence removing the potential financial barrier from a child’s choice to learn an instrument or have singing lessons."

Sue Turner, music festival organiser who is involved in Music MOB, said the charity planned that the scheme would begin in two primary schools in the Oswestry area in September 2021.

"In years gone by visiting musicians – peripatetic teachers – were a common sight in schools, offering lessons on a variety of instruments. Many of us will have had a first experience of learning an instrument and then playing it alongside other people in a band or orchestra in the state school environment or singing in a school choir. But these are disappearing opportunities," she said.

"We want to provide to make this possible once again in our local state schools."

Oswestry’s Charity Market was developed in conjunction with the Qube with the intention of giving local charities the chance to have a space free of charge to raise much-needed funds, find volunteers and raise awareness.

This year’s event will include 18 stalls and include charities such as Horatio’s Garden, Hectors Greyhound rescue, Whittington Community Centre, Marie Curie, Remap, Oswestry Men’s Shed, The Movement Centre, Hearing Dogs for the Deaf, Severn Hospice, Katmandu, Oswestry Museum, Cambrian Railway Trust, Oswestry Multiple Sclerosis and the company Evastore who have teamed up with Oswestry Borderland Rotary to raise funds for various local community projects.

These include a plan to plant native spring bulbs in various community spaces around eastern Oswestry in the autumn to enhance people's wellbeing and mental health with a multi-coloured spring flower display in public grassed areas. The Evastore document shredding van will be alongside the Guildhall and for a donation of £5 for up to 10kilos of paperwork, local people/businesses can have their paperwork/documents securely professionally shredded.