LED Controls Ltd is officially part of the Burnley Bondholders community! Our very own MD Richard Allen and Sales Manager Ainsley Sawicz received LED Controls' Bondholder Certificate from Burnley Council CEO Lukman Patel and Bondholders Chair Neil Evans on Friday 11 September.
This was our first official Burnley Bondholder event, and there can’t be many better places to be welcomed into Burnley’s business community than the historic Great Barn at Gawthorpe Hall.
Joining Burnley’s business community
Burnley Bondholders brings together more than 200 businesses and organisations that share an interest in supporting the borough, raising its profile and helping the local economy prosper. Members exchange ideas, contacts and expertise, while working to promote Burnley as a belting place to live, work, invest and do business.
At LED Controls, we've always prided ourselves on building relationships over making a quick sale, so we’re thrilled to be a part of a community so focused on connecting and uplifting local people.
Around 140 Bondholders were booked in for the Gawthorpe event, meaning it was a great opportunity to put faces to names and enjoy a little networking with new and established members over breakfast laid on by new café operator Mooch Gawthorpe. Lukman and Neil gave stirring orations and then handed out the new Bondholder certificates, before the National Trust team gave us a guided tour around Gawthorpe Hall's magnificent grounds.
A 420-year-old setting
The Great Barn is a Grade I-listed building dating back to 1605. The building is an apt locale for a Burnley Bondholders event, as it's such a part of the local community that it was once used as an indoor training area for Burnley Football Club! It also served as an arts and exhibition space before structural wear and tear led to its closure to visitors in 2008.
Bringing the Great Barn back to life
The Barn's grand reopening follows a major £1.35 million National Trust conservation project to make the building safe and usable for generations to come. Specialist heritage craftspeople repaired the historic timber rafters and painstakingly re-roofed the building, reusing original material wherever possible. Even the building’s non-human residents have been taken into account, with the restoration helping to protect the habitat of the brown long-eared and pipistrelle bats that have set up home in the barn!
The project has been supported by funding from organisations including Historic England, the Wolfson Foundation, Lancashire Environmental Fund and Burnley Council, alongside a legacy and contributions from local groups and donors. So, rather than simply restoring and preserving a historic structure, the project aim is to rejuvenate the building as a versatile space for local people, businesses and events for the future.
A fitting place to start
Not to make it all about us, but there was something particularly appropriate about attending our first Burnley Bondholders event in a building that's beginning a new chapter of its own. The morning was a combo of looking back on Burnley’s heritage and looking forward with its current community: a 420-year-old building brought back into use by local organisations working together, and businesses from across the borough making new connections to build for a bright future.
Richard and Ainsley came away with a certificate, some new linkedin connections and very positive reviews of the venue, the conversation and - perhaps most importantly - the breakfast. But they also left with a real sense of the community and history of Burnley and its people.
We’d like to thank the Burnley Bondholders team, National Trust and everyone involved in the event for making LED Controls feel so welcome. We’re looking forward to meeting more of our fellow Bondholders and playing our part in a business community that continues to champion Burnley. Especially if it means hanging out in some more epic locales like this one!
