Riverside House project transforms forgotten site amid Covid

Although Covid-19 lockdowns hit community groups and schemes hard during the last 18 months - an ambitious project which aims to transform a derelict 19th century ironworks site by the River Stour and Stourbridge Canal has proven the perfect tonic for helping people with mental health problems and disabilities to stay connected, retain their sense of purpose and develop new skills.

They have been playing a key, hands-on role in the Riverside House project which has been a lifeline for people who have especially suffered the effects of isolation amid the pandemic - and which has been slowly but surely transforming an overgrown site of historical significance into a place that inspires wellbeing and improves biodiversity.

Riverside House

Once home to the Foster and Rastrick foundry, which built the famous Stourbridge Lion steam engine - the first train to run on tracks in the USA, the site has lain empty for many years and it comprises a grade II listed house and workshops, woodland and walled gardens plus dry dock and narrowboat basins where coal and pig iron were brought in.

Lloyd Stacey at Riverside House before the project got started in 2017

Riverside House lurks just behind this canal bridge

Most of the landscape was completely overgrown when former carpenter and SEN tutor Lloyd Stacey first had a vision of what it could be...but over the last four years his idea to turn the forgotten waterside site into a community hub with a cafe, shop, craft workshops and public park with wild flower meadows has slowly been becoming reality.

Riverside House - located off the Stourbridge Canal

In 2017 volunteers began clearing and tidying the surrounding canal towpaths and since then, thanks to various grants and hard graft, the project has come on leaps and bounds.

Last year just, as the pandemic took hold, the project was given a £51,934 boost from the Severn Trent Community Fund to create a unique wetland ecosystem treatment area to purify greywater for other uses.

The new wetland area

And in June 2020 Riverside House received £43,138 from Enovert Community Trust for a solar panel system to power an off-grid cafe and community rooms, created out of shipping containers. The funds also helped to buy kitchen equipment and furniture.

The site now also boasts a waterless compost toilet, a beehive, an oak frame round house for activities and a flourishing market garden with greenhouse.

A market garden has been created at Riverside House

Lloyd said: "The project is growing beautifully. It’s really coming along. This is huge for the town. It's going to be something very special.

"Our funders have been instrumental in making this work...and this wonderful team we’ve got who’ve helped transform the site over the last four years."

A great deal of the work has been completed since the Covid crisis unfolded.

The lockdowns prevented group work on site, which was tough for some of the service users with learning difficulties for whom the project has meant so much.

Among them Kallum Garbett, aged 26, who has autism, who said it had been "horrible" being locked down and unable to get on with the outdoors work.

The lockdowns, however, gave Lloyd the opportunity to get some vital work done and push the project forwards while retaining a sense of purpose and hope for the future which many people were robbed of at the height of the pandemic.

Since things have re-opened, it has been back to full steam ahead.

As well as helping to regenerate a run-down site, the project has helped to transform lives for some of those involved who have autism, personal problems and mental health difficulties as well as lifting spirits through and beyond the worst of the Covid crisis. Lloyd said: "It's definitely helped me and I see everybody who comes here thrive and really get something out of it."

Although great strides forward have been made, it could take a decade to complete the vision for the site which is being dubbed "the Black Country's Lost Gardens of Heligan".

An oak-framed roundhouse takes pride of place on the Riverside House site

A parkland with wild flower meadows, pear and apple orchards is planned for the site which will have managed woodland with paths to enable access for activities and there are hopes of restoring the grade II listed ironmaster's house plus dry dock and canal boat basins further down the line.

The old ironmaster's house is currently boarded up

The cafe/restaurant is almost complete but not expected to open until next year, while plans for a craft and produce shop selling locally sourced items are also on the cards.

The intention is also to host artistic events and to hire out rooms and spaces to freelance practitioners.

Lloyd also wants the site to host classes and demonstrations in activities such as blacksmithing and metal casting to give people the chance to develop practical skills reflective of the site's heritage.

To find out more see the Riverside House Facebook page which posts regular updates on the project.