The Community Noticeboard as cultural infrastructure

The game-changing Community Noticeboard, outside of our house in Cambridgeshire.

Just over two years ago now my partner and I made a slightly post-pandemic, partly family circumstance-informed decision to get a place in the ‘middle of nowhere’. Well, I say it was a joint-decision. Really, like almost all major decisions made in a relationship, it was pushed by one person and then negotiated down by another. 

For example:

“Can I buy a bothy in Isle of Harris, the Outer Hebrides? We love it there.”

“We, do, yes, but it is also SO challenging to get to… this place obviously has to be closer than that”

“What about something in Pembrokeshire?”

“I mean… we are not going there every weekend - it is like a five hour drive away from London where, lest I remind you, we both have jobs”

And so, these snippets of conversation led us to purchasing a cottage in peri-urban Cambridgeshire, on the outskirts of Haverhill aka a reasonable one and half hours’ drive from London (less, if you’re blessed to live in Waltham Forest or Newham). For those that have some understanding of the area, we live part-time in the bit where the fingers of Cambridgeshire greedily dip into both Essex and West Suffolk. Meaning that to get to ours, you must drive down a road that seemingly takes the piss with its ever-changing “Welcome To [insert county]” signage.  

While I grew up in a relatively rural area in the North Wales coast, returning back to the countryside took some getting used to after two decades in London. I had to recalibrate my brain to not rely on public transport, to commit to a weekly big shop at the supermarket and - here’s the key point - to always remember to check the Community Noticeboard (wherever it might appear). 

The Cultural Lifeline of Community Noticeboards

I had made my mind up before partially relocating that the countryside wasn’t ‘less cultural’. The idea that living outside of the city meant encountering a cultural desert smacked of a snobbery that I was keen to avoid. While certain cultural offerings might be a little tougher to unearth or require a tad longer journey time, that didn’t mean they weren’t possible to find. In fact, the Community Noticeboards that I came to rely on painted a very different picture of the local area. 

Opportunities for Connection and Creativity

Whether it was in the local shop or down the end of the road, the Community Noticeboard was awash with opportunities to learn, perform, practise and chat, all laid out for anyone to stumble across. It was buzzing with opportunities to be creative and chances to connect with other people, mostly taking place in a local church, Village Hall or in an venue like the excellent Snobby Eddys Craft Centre in Haverhill. 

The Community Noticeboard became a lifeline of sorts for my partner and I. If we were at a loose end over a weekend, a quick look at the noticeboard and BOOM you were ready to try your hand at a ceilidh or relax with a concert. If you needed a Pilates class to remedy a week of homeworking or wanted to give the ukulele a go, the Community Noticeboard had all the details. 

Building Social Resilience in Rural Areas

An oft-referenced paper in journal Sociologica Rurialis stated that cultural practice “build[s] the resilience of rural communities not only economically but also socially and culturally” and you can see that taking place where we live. The parish choir, the knitting circle, the regular pub quiz, family fun day and the am dram group don’t just build new bonds and creative skills, they actively draw the village together. And the humble Community Noticeboard is effectively a map of all those relationships.

One of my favourite writers Raymond Williams in his 1973 book The Country and the City says that “in the traditional rural community, work, leisure, belief, and art were not separate activities, but parts of a common whole.” If that’s the case, the trusty old Community Noticeboard is that “common whole” made manifest. The one space where everything needs to appear, where you can find yourself and all your neighbours.