“It was like burned toast, a little bit hazy in the air,” said Judith Richens, remembering the moment her plans for Marlborough Road Community Hub went up in smoke a few days after it opened its doors in July 2024.
Two months earlier, the 57-year-old resigned from her headteacher role at Marlborough Road Primary Academy to lead the launch of a new community centre in Broughton which would anchor residents living in a “transient” and multicultural area.
“There are 47 languages, 50 ethnicities, a lot of empty housing stock and a lot of turnover in the area,” she explained. “Putting down roots and making connections can be difficult because of the change, but that’s part of what makes the place rich and amazing.”
Judith worked with the headteacher at Dukesgate Academy and the facility’s owners to fund a post so someone could shape the space full-time. She soon fell in love with the project, though, and left her headteacher role to fill the position.
After working to create a safe space for young people to socialise, where dedicated groups for women and girls could be held alongside karate and women’s football sessions, her vision for the centre was coming together.
Next door to the community centre was a flourishing allotment, and the centre partnered with a charity to install a pantry, from which fresh food would be sold at a reduced cost to ease the pressures from the cost of living.
“We had a soft launch where children did translating and it went really well,” Judith recounted.
A day after the big unveiling, a setback struck as a fire broke out in the building, forcing the community centre to close for over a year before it rose from the ashes in September 2025.
“The caretaker put the lights on for me as normal and one of the bulbs blew and started the fire,” she said.
When I came down here, I went into the sports hall and it was hazy in there, then I put my hand on the door to the pantry, and it felt hot. I thought, ‘right, I’m not opening that one’,” she recalled.
“Three fire engines later, it was burnt and wet and we had to close for more than a year.
“Given that the previous afternoon it was full of people, my number one thought at the time was that nobody had been injured. Then I felt gutted and thought ‘What on earth are we going to do about this?’ We had all these brilliant plans for the next year.”
Instead of dwelling on the heartbreak, Julie explained the fire “galvanised” those involved to keep up the momentum by maintaining the allotment, lacing up their boots for community walks and turning out at events held at nearby Unity Community Primary School.
So, when September rolled around, the appetite for the community hub was greater than ever, with a local karate group and the Scouts moving in soon after, birthday parties booked in and women’s groups getting underway.
Nine months after reopening its doors in September 2025, the hub marked the milestone with an official launch event at the end of May, showcasing the range of activities and services now on offer to local people.
Visitors took part in archery, face painting and a tombola, while a bouncy castle proved popular with younger attendees. Children’s charity Barnardo’s, which runs sessions at the hub, also hosted activities to give families a glimpse of its regular programmes.
There were fun things that people could do and it was a chance to kind of come and see that they are also very welcome to use the space. It isn’t a school, although we’re connected to the school, we are open to everybody.
The official opening follows an announcement that the Marlborough Road Community Hub has received a National Lottery grant to fund it for the next three years. This means the Hub will be able to extend its opening hours so it can be used in the evenings and weekends.
After a rocky start, things are looking up for the Broughton-based community hub.
“There is so much going on here on a daily basis and we’re always looking at how we can expand what we are doing,” Judith said.
More information about Marlborough Road Community Hub can be found here.
