In June 2016 the Archibald Corbett Society and the Corbett Residents’ Association joined forces to form a company limited by guarantee and a charity with the intention of saving the Torridon Road Library from being closed down by the Council and which re-opened as a community library and arts and heritage centre at the end of October 2016.
The company limited by guarantee acts as the legal structure to run the Charity. The Company has a Board of directors and the Charity has Trustees. It is the responsibility of both the board and the Trustees to ensure the organisation is run in accordance with the Articles of Association which govern how the Centre is operated in accordance with its objects.
Board members/Trustees are also responsible for overseeing the financial affairs of the ACCLAHC to include publishing a report and accounts each year which is filed at Companies House and the Charities Commission. The Board meets bi monthly where it discusses finances, how the Library is operating on a day to day basis and the future development of the Centre to ensure its long term sustainability.
There are currently twelve Board members who are also the Trustees of the Charity and a Secretary. Our board members all live, or have lived, on the Corbett Estate and have a range of experience in building management, accountancy, education, child welfare, community business management, media, fundraising, IT and health.
We are always looking for new members from our local community who feel they could contribute skills and ideas that will help maintain and develop the Centre as a vibrant asset for the benefit of local residents.
If you are interested, please contact our Chair, Jacky Berry.
Board Members
Jacky Berry
Chair
Jacky has been working as a volunteer at the Corbett Community Library since 2017. In 2021 she became a Board member has been the Chair since July 2022. Before retiring, she was a professionally qualified Librarian working in the fields of Education, Architecture/Building Surveying, Actuaries, Law and Medicine. Outside her work with the CCL, she volunteers at a local primary school helping children with their reading. She belongs to Rock Choir, The WI and enjoys the opera, theatre, cinema and meeting friends.
Jane Gillis
Treasurer
Jane has been Treasurer of the Corbett Community Library since 2017. She is a chartered accountant who works as a contractor in the insurance industry, after spending 16 years at Aviva. She has lived on the Corbett Estate for nearly 24 years and joined the Corbett Residents’ Association in 2010, helping to organise various events, including the annual fireworks. She also volunteered to set up a residents’ book club which is still going strong today.
Alison Strawbridge
Secretary
Alison is the Secretary and joined the Board in 2022. She has worked as a Fundraising Database Manager for 20 years and is a past President of Catford WI and a former volunteer at the Library.
Julia Burke
Julia was a founder member of the Corbett Community Library with Peter Ranken in 2016. She was Volunteer Coordinator for many years and has been a Corbett resident for 50 years. On retirement from teaching, she joined and volunteered for the Corbett Residents’ Association as a member of the Streets and Environment Group and the Events Group. She has led events such as the CRA festivals and Christmas street markets and campaigns including the Snow Wardens. She also volunteers for the environmental group, Clean Air for Catford.
Ben Honeybone
Ben became a Corbett Estate resident in 2012, and joined the Archibald Corbett Society when it was founded in 2013. He made a film about Archibald Cameron Corbett (Archibald Cameron Corbett: The Man and The Houses) with funding from the National Lottery, which had public screenings in three of the Corbett Estates and has since been viewed thousands of times on YouTube (watch here). He is currently the Secretary of Archibald Corbett Society, which meets every three months in the Library.
Cheryl Johnson
Cheryl has been a resident of the Corbett Estate since 1993. As well as being a board member, she has volunteered at the Library since it reopened in its new guise. Cheryl’s background is in Early Childhood Education (under 5s) and she has put this to good use in the past by reading stories to groups of children visiting the Library from local schools. As an avid book reader, Cheryl is well aware of the importance of keeping the Library open and its benefits for all age groups.
Helen Marcelle
Helen joined the Board in 2022 and has been volunteering in the Library for a while. She is currently a Resident Support Manager within a housing association. She decided to become a trustee to give back to her local community. She enjoys helping others and volunteering at the welfare benefits sessions held at the Library, applying her knowledge and experience in housing issues and welfare benefits. She has also volunteered within the Citizens Advice Bureau. She has previously worked within Government, Local Authority and in the private sector in the legal field.
Pat Merry
Pat was a founder member of the Corbett Community Library in 2016 after retirement from the London Borough of Lewisham with years of facilities management behind her. She has volunteered at the Library since it became a Community Library, coordinating facilities and building maintenance, and in the last four years, line managing the Centre Manager. She is happy to roll up her sleeves and help build shelves or fix doors.
Lynda Miller
Lynda has lived on the Corbett Estate for over 30 years and has worked in Lewisham for a similar period of time. She is a retired primary schoolteacher and head teacher. Following her retirement from headship, Lynda became an education consultant and worked supporting school leadership and also mentoring and supporting Teach First trainee teachers. However, Lynda’s first job on leaving school was in the West Riding County Library as a library assistant. She has been working as a volunteer at the Corbett Library since it reopened as a community library.
Gavin Moorhead
Gavin joined the Board in 2022 after moving to the Corbett Estate. He has been a university lecturer in British Politics and a researcher on equality, diversity and inclusion; widening participation and community engagement. He currently works for a literature organisation that specialises in supporting and promoting underrepresented voices and reaching diverse audiences.
Jenny Owens
Jenny became a board member in September 2022. She has worked as a graphic artist for newspapers all her career and has worked at The Times for 20 years. She has brought her three sons up on the Corbett Estate and has always been a keen library user.
In the early days of the Library starting up as a charity in 2016, she helped design an exhibition on the origins of the Corbett Estate and has also designed the logo.
She is passionate about visual art and is working towards increasing provision of this within the community at the Library and inviting more artists to use the space we have. She is a member of the creative writing group and the reading group and having been trained in librarian skills, loves to volunteer when she can.
Des Reid
Des is an IT specialist who supplies IT support to many libraries as well as other charitable organisations across London and Kent. He has been assisting the Corbett Community Library for the last seven years and became a Trustee two years ago. We welcome his expertise!
Peter Ranken MBE
Patron
Peter lived on the Corbett Estate for 38 years and managed a Communications and Graphic Design Consultancy for 27 years. In 2002, he moved into the third sector working in community regeneration.
In 2013, Peter set up The Archibald Corbett Society with the support of over 400 residents to protect and promote the legacy of Archibald Corbett and the Corbett Estate. Between 2013 and 2016, he was also responsible for the regeneration of a disused Council owned playing field at Abbotshall Road on the Corbett Estate, raising £1million to develop it into a Healthy Lifestyle Centre.
In 2016, Peter coordinated the takeover of the Grade II listed Torridon Library from Lewisham Council, setting up a Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee and developing the Library into a community hub. In 2019, Peter was successful in raising £210,000 to fund two managers to run the hub.
In 2017, Peter became a founder member of the Community Managed Libraries National Peer Network. He now lives in Kent and is Chair of the Friends of Edenbridge and Westerham Citizens Advice, but still visits the Corbett Community Library regularly.
Peter was awarded an MBE for services to the community on the Corbett Estate in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, June 2016. In 2023, he became the very first Patron of the Corbett Community Library.