Each year, Egremont Town Council invites the public to nominate an individual or group for the Margaret Woodburn Good Citizen’s Award. 

This is to recognise the selfless work they do for and within the community of Egremont parish.

Due to the record number of nominations received this year Councillors felt that this year, an additional Special Recognition Award should be given out to the ladies of Memory Lane/Egremont Heritage Centre which recently closed down after 9 years.

Memory Lane, which it is known by locally, was the brainchild of Marianne Hornby who wanted to create a place where people could pop in and see local photos, documents and relics of their town and its people.

Unfortunately, Marianne had a bad bicycle accident and was unable to continue but this did not stop the force that was Val Whitehead and Betty Regan who ran the shop supported by many others and thus enabled Marianne’s dream to come true.

An Egremont Town Council spokesperson said: "Val and Betty happily gave their time for free and they were soon joined by Betty’s daughter Liz (Dixon) and friend Margaret Banks who between them were the mainstays who opened the shop six days a week for the community and visitors alike, it made no difference to who you were, everyone was greeted with a smile and a chat.

"Sadly through no fault of their own, the owner of the building decided to sell and alas there was no space for Memory Lane to continue and recently their doors were closed for good.

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"The group however is still going strong and they meet in Egremont Fire Station and although they miss the “crack” with visitors they do not sit on their laurels for long, at least one of the ladies (if not all) will be giving their time again for free to help out at a new social hub which will be opening shortly in the Meeting Place so everyone is welcome to pop in and say hello, I am sure the ladies will be delighted."

The ladies were then invited to accept their award presented to them by Elaine Woodburn – Chairperson of Egremont Town Council.

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