Life in The Hub was 'compact'. Imagine, if you will a portacabin with two full size desks in on corner, a big, dinning room style table with 6 chairs, a large photocopier and small tables down the side for the Craft Class to use and a small bureau which functioned as our 'kitchen'.

There was not much spare floor space and that disappeared completely when we held our Coffee mornings! The desks were cleared to the side, the water boilers set up, the cups stacked on the desk and yet more small round tables brought in for the people to sit at. The Coffee Morning has become a monthly event happening on 4th Friday of every month from 10.00am - 12.30pm and continues to be well-supported.

Despite restricted space the classes thrived, with the weekly Craft classes, talks on Healthy Lifestyle and we even managed to have willow weaving classes in it. The Hub was also used as a base for the walks in the Summer around the local area to discover some of the historical landmark which we drove past so often with a second look. Another success was a cookery class which actually ran in Valerie's kitchen but which concluded with a meal in The Hub which was cooked by a local chef.

Space may have been restricted but that did not stop us making and carrying out big ideas one of which was to hold a Craft Fayre Extravaganza in a local church hall. It entailed a lot of hard work gathering up the craftwork to be displayed, organising for outside groups to come along and set up their stands, and, when it came to the event itself finding the best way to exhibit all the work. The work displayed, (some for sale), included paintings, crochet, lace-making, general craft work, a wide selection of patchwork quilts which had been done by the craft class and we also ran workshop to make up material covered boxes. On the stage we had a display of vintage costumes and the event was opened by Joe Mahon, presenter of Lesser Spotted Ulster.

The Fayre ran for two days, 30th & 31st May 2008 and proved to be a great success and donations were made to the work of Cancer Research and MS.

A very potted history of Dromboughil Community Association

10th May 1999 - An initial meeting was called by a number of people in the area to discuss the possibility of starting an association that would be responsible for the improvement of and development of the area. Included in that meeting was a representative of the International Fund for Ireland - a funding organisation. The outcome of the meeting was a unanimous decision to proceed with the idea.

12th May 1999 - No time was wasted and almost immediately a meeting was held in Buchanan's house to organise a womens group.

The next thing that was developed was a Community Bulletin, the fore-runner of our Newsletter.

In order to raise funds to get the Association off the ground a Fun Day was organised and opened by Hugo Duncan. It included fire engine rides, face painting, guess the weight of the cake and various stalls. This event took place on 15th July 1999.

Time passed, different events and classes were started and developed.

July 2000 saw our now annual event occur - the Duck Race. A load of little yellow bath ducks which have numbers painted underneath them are 'bought', and on the day, tipped off a bridge on a local river to race down to where the river has been temporarily dammed. The winner is the person who has 'bought' the duck who reaches the end first.

Despite having no permanent premises the work developed and in 2001 Computer Classes were organised.

The Craft Class, which is still running, started back in October 2001. This lead to a full-blown Craft Exhibition which was held in March 2002.

In 2002 approaches were made to others in the Community to become involved and happily they agreed and came on board.

As the Association developed different things were introduced such as Local History talks and walks on the lighter Spring/Summer evenings and gradually the administration centre moved into the Buchanan households dinning room.

Early in 2007 it was decided that more help was needed to carry out the Administrative work of the Association with the increasing amount of work to be done seeking funding etc. Part-time staff were taken on.

All along it had been the hope that the Association would move to more suitable premises - it was taking over the dinning room and so in 2007 portacabin was purchased, funded by the Limavady Community Forum, under he umbrella of Limavady Borough Council, as a stop-gap while EU funding was finalised. It was set up in the yard, decorated and set up as the office and re-named The Hub - the move took place in June 2007.

The next exciting episode will follow soon - Hub Life

This is where you will find us.

These are our premises which we moved into in January of this year (2009

Our address is 36 Magheramore Road, Dungiven, Londonderry, BT47 4SW

Contact nos: 028 77741247/07710412177

e-mail: admin@dromboughil.com

Meet the staff

From the left: Siobhan, Part-time Office Assistant, Valerie, Administrator, Anne, Part-time Office Assistant

Welcome to Dromboughil Community blog!

Welcome to Dromboughil's blog. We hope you will find it interesting and you will enjoy learning about us and seeing photographs of some of the things that go on here.