We at FoHS are starting to get the station looking festive for Christmas. Three of us have strung flashing lights around the ticket office’s canopy, and tested them – they’re due to be switched on to coincide with the Handforth Lights Switch-On on the late afternoon of Sat 30th November.

Read more: Handforth Station getting ready for Christmas

A Christmas Tree will soon be mounted inside the Ticket Office – as every year – and this year we plan to install a festive and seasonal display in our Art In A Box lockers (by early December).

Winners of a drawing competition run by the Friends of Handforth Station (FoHS) were rewarded last Wednesday.

In early June, the FoHS ran a stall at the Handforth D-Day Commemoration event. The stall focussed on Handforth Station’s involvement in WWII, and served to publicise the work of the Friends group at the station. FoHS President Mike Bishop organised a drawing competition, inviting local residents to illustrate “What I Like to See out of the Train Window”.

The joint winners of the drawing competition were Athena and Shelley, both residents of Handforth. Shelley drew Minnie Mouse (whom she’s still hoping to see out of a train window) and Athena drew a pastoral countryside in full sunshine.

The winning entries were selected from over 20 submissions, by Mike Bishop, and he congratulated the winners in person during a brief ceremony at the station. 

Read more: Latest Prize Winners announced

Mike said “The Friends love being involved with the local community in this manner, and we were delighted with the imagination shown and the standard of the resulting pictures.”

He added “We shall be displaying the winning entries at the station for the local community to enjoy. They will complement the current exhibition in our ‘Art In A Box’ installation – we have a ‘Forest’ scene and a ‘Seashore’ scene – our famous collection of signs and our flourishing floral displays. Collectively, these features make our station a welcome and attractive place for its users. ”

Each of the two prizes was a family day rail pass generously provided by Northern Trains.

The 1^st Handforth Beaver Scouts invited representatives  of the Friends of Handforth Station to join their regular evening meetings recently.

FoHS members Mike Bishop and Roger Small attended on Monday 26^th and on Thursday 29^th February, and ran an educational quiz for the Beavers, entitled “How well do Beavers know Handforth?”. This was a Powerpoint show in which each of 20 slides asked a question based on three Handforth-related images.

Many of the questions were based on Handforth’s buildings old and new. Other pictures featured diverse subjects, such as “Which of these trains often stops at Handforth Station?”, “Which of these birds can often be seen on the lawns surrounding the library?” and “Where does Handforth Town Council normally meet?”

The Beavers all answered individually, choosing A, B or C on an answer sheet to indicate their answers. Some of the Beavers who participated in the quiz scored a very high 14 marks out of 20.

Deborah Robson (known as Amik when being the leader of the Beaver Scouts) commented “The quiz was really good. It’s always nice for the Beavers to have visitors. We thank the Friends for coming to see us twice, to present the quiz to both halves of our Beaver colony”.

Mike Bishop (President of FoHS) said “The Friends of Handforth Station are always pleased to be able to engage with youngsters in the population of Handforth, particularly if such engagement has elements of both entertainment and education.”