Bid to raise £20,000 for writers’ retreat work

AN internet bid to raise £20,000 to pay for much-needed repairs to literary hideaway, Church Cottage in Clifford Chambers, has been launched.

The one up, one down cottage is owned and managed by The Hosking Houses Trust, a charity set up in 1995 by Sarah Hosking with the vision of providing a creative space and financial support for women writers over 40 in need of peace and space to concentrate on their work.

Since residencies started in 2002, the cottage has been home to 70 creative women.

And the Trust is now looking to the future by launching an online fundraising campaign to fund much-needed renovations, an extension, and to extend the opportunity to other creative women over 40, including musicians and visual artists.

The Trust is asking for donations of any size through a new Crowdfunder project.

All money pledged will have rewards attached, from an invitation to a Christmas concert to a full weekend visit to the cottage, a visit to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and Shakespeare properties, and their name on a residency.

Sarah said: “Having successfully established a ‘writer-in-residence’ (and it has taken about 3,000 letters over ten years to achieve), my aim now is to establish similar, endowed opportunities for a visual artist, a composer and a ‘something’, perhaps combining the arts, sciences and philosophies in tranquil, domestic circumstances.

“We hope that people will support us through donations and we aim to ensure all those who help us feel involved in our journey.”

Marion Fleetwood, a Stratford-based musician, who is helping the Trust in this new venture, said: “For a Trust as established and respected in literary circles to branch out into Crowdfunding is both admirable and wise.

“The aims of the Hosking Houses Trust are very specific, and in these times of charities chasing ever smaller or over-subscribed sources of funding they need to be creative in their fundraising.”

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