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THE ROPEWALK, BARTON ON HUMBER

A group of artists has transformed a decaying rope factory into a visual arts centre stretching for a third of a mile through North Lincolnshire.

Six years after the first phase of the Ropewalk Gallery was opened in Barton on Humber, it has completed its renaissance and is now home to artists' studios, creative industries workspaces and an auditorium.

The recent official opening represented the final chapter of the transformation, which has led to the complete regeneration of a brownfield site.
 
It has breathed new life into a building that had stood empty for many years but once made the ropes for the first conquest of Mount Everest.  Inside the huge building – formerly the longest tiled structure in Europe – hundreds of men, women and children had once twined ropes up to 1,500ft long.  Ropes were made for Royal Navy sailing ships, Hull whalers and Grimsby's deep-sea fishing fleet.

Through grants and cash injections from European Regional Development Funding, assistance from development agency Yorkshire Forward, SRB-funding and North Lincolnshire Council and generous rates from the building's owners, the Scarborough-based Proudfoot supermarket group, the Ropewalk Museum is now complete.

One of the artists who began the project in the late 1990s, Richard Hatfield, said: "Sometimes you do have to pinch yourself when you think how far we have come.  This whole area is thriving now and people simply want to be a part of what is going on here.  We've certainly come a long way since we first saw the state of the place years ago, but thanks to a lot of people it has become something very special.  A lot of visitors have passed through the doors and some of the exhibitions we've held are really top drawer.  We've so many people to thank and I'm proud to have been a part of this."

The restoration is the work of the Waterside Artists' Cooperative, formed by Mr Hatfield and partners in 1998.

In addition to three galleries, the building houses 12 artists' studios and a picture framing service, as well as a number of facilities available for use by the public, including a dark room and a printmaking studio.  The Ropewalk Craft Gallery houses an exhibition of quality craftwork from over 80 regionally and nationally acclaimed makers providing small gifts and collectors' items to buyers from around the country.  Works, by new and established artists, include glassware, ceramics, textiles sculpture, prints and an extensive collection of contemporary jewellery.