Newsletter - Winter 2025

A fantastic first book festival

Stephen Haines as Gandalf

At the beginning of September 2025 we held our very first book festival. It was a great day and many people said how much they enjoyed it.

Emily from Emily’s Bindery

Particularly popular was the story reading hosted by Stephen Haines, book binding by Emily’s Bindery and the talks by authors David Cliffe and Lisa Blower.

Our local authors David Cliffe and Lisa Blower

We also held a poetry competition for children and we are delighted to announce that Arthur Mason, age 4 years won.

SPACE

“I love you, bye”,

I’m going up to space,

To help an astronaut.

by Arthur Mason, age 4.

Dawn Jutton ex Staffordshire Poet Laureate judged the poems and said that she was amazed at the sentiments shown by one so young. In second place was Olivia Pheasey and in third was Meredith Mason, age 6.

We will be organising another Book Festival event next year and would love your help. We would like to know what you would like to see, what would you like to do? We are looking at a provisional date of Saturday 22 August 2026 to hold the event. Do you think this is a good time?

Please let the library staff know your views and help us to make this another successful event. We truly want to make this an annual event for the whole of Cheadle to enjoy.

Christmas at the library

During December we are participating in a High Street competition – Find The Penguin. If you find a penguin in the library give your name and contact number to a member of staff and you will be entered into a prize draw to win the penguin plus a special prize.

We will also be holding a "Elves picture Treasure Hunt" aimed at ages 4 to 6 years, and "Elves picture Word Puzzle" aimed at 7 years and upwards. There will be stickers for the younger age group and prizes for the older age group. Names will be drawn out of a hat for ten winners.

There will also be lots of Christmas activities to do on the activity tables. There are lots of seasonal books to read for both children and adults along with recipe books to give you some ideas for meals over the holiday period.

The Library will be closed over the Christmas Period from 12 noon Saturday 20 December 2025 until 9am Friday 2 January 2026. We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year.

Looking forward

Our thoughts are now turning to 2026. We are very proud to be able to offer a very successful library to the people of Cheadle. This is due to the dedication and hard work of all our Volunteers and Trustees without whom Cheadle would have no library.

Many of our clients are very grateful and often express their thanks, which we appreciate very much. We are more than just a library though; we are also a Community Hub where everyone is welcome.

We are proud to be in partnership with the University of the Third Age (U3A) who now hold some of their classes here. Cheadle Amateur Theatrical Society (CATS), our local amateur dramatic group and scouts and guides also use our library for meetings. In 2026 we are also partnering with Cheadle Discovery Group for their World War 2 project, The Spirit and Hope of Cheadle. We will be asking young people to come in and make some simple models of planes which will be displayed in the library during May and June 2026 to coincide with Spitfire Day on Saturday 6 June 2026. Watch this space for more details.

We are also updating and improving this website and social platforms to keep you up to date with everything that is happening at the library. With events to be organised it is looking to be a very busy and exciting 2026.