At Seashell, we’re very proud to announce the launch of The Bradbury Cycling Centre. It has been developed throughout the year but is now completely finished and open for use! Find out what the Learn to Ride Track and wider trails are, what happened at our grand opening, and how you can get involved with this exciting cycle space for disabled persons.
What is the Learn to Ride track?
At Seashell, we have been planning a cycling space for people to build their confidence and knowledge about cycling since November 2021. It is the latest in our range of facilities to develop important skills, offer sensory stimulation, and have fun with.
Once we received planning permission, we then moved into phase one of its completion, introducing the Learn to Ride Track. The completion of phase two has involved adding an extra snaking track around the Seashell campus, which we are now happily celebrating with the final launch of the complete Bradbury Cycling Centre.
The Learn to Ride track is designed by Playscheme and is intended to provide the answer for people enquiring about a Playscheme space ‘near me’. It aims to get children and young adults involved in improving their cycling skills and knowledge of riding while on the road. The track was designed to provide a fun and safe space for improving well-being and confidence while cycling.
The new children’s cycling centre will be open year-round. Children and young adults from across the region who want to get involved will be given an inclusive cycling offer, which aims to give them access to a bike suitable for their needs, the skills and confidence to use it, and somewhere local, safe and exciting to ride.
Sitting in our 30-acre campus, the £750,000 centre includes a large floodlit ‘Learn to Ride’ area leading to three graded off-road trails. Each of these trails offers a range of different challenges and sensory experiences. The centre comes as a part of our existing community sports facilities, which provide a range of inclusive community sport and activity camps and clubs for hundreds of children with special needs.
If you’d like to get involved with helping out on the track, or any other of our exciting facilities, you can find out more here.
The big launch of the Bradbury Cycling Centre
We were lucky enough to have cycling royalty come down to officially open the cycling space. Chris Boardman MBE, Chair of Sport England and Olympic champion, officially opened the Bradbury Cycling Centre here at Seashell Trust in Stockport. He was supported by our students, key partners and organisations from the local area who will be supporting the centre.
Chris spoke about the value the facility provides and how it will help young people within the community.
Boardman said: “The benefits of cycling are well detailed but children and young people with disabilities and their families struggle to find facilities that properly understand their particular needs. We hope the Bradbury Cycling Centre, with access to Seashell’s highly experienced staff, will become the ‘go-to’ venue for those looking for an introduction to cycling either as an individual or as a family group.”
The wider trails were built by leading bike track builders Clark and Kent, who spoke about the importance of inclusivity within cycling.
They said: “Everyone should have the opportunity to get on a bike and take part in cycling. And if they don’t, then we need to do more to make cycling accessible to all.”
The project has been made possible thanks to grant funding support from the Bradbury Foundation and the Places to Ride programme, which is being delivered by British Cycling, Sport England and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS).
Also in attendance were Seashell Relationships’ Director, Dominic Tinner, former European BMX Champion and current Junior Academy BMX Coach for the Great Britain Cycling Team, Kyle Evans, and Great Britain mountain bike rider, Stacey Fisher. Our Team GB guests gave the wider trails a spin to show the students their skills and explore the rest of the facility.
We can’t wait to see how people learn with these children’s cycling facilities, but most importantly have fun with them!
Our additional facilities and activities
We have a variety of other facilities that your child can get involved in at Seashell, all of which are designed to help them learn and develop essential skills. If you would like your child to get involved with us, either in the short term or long term, we have several facilities available for them to use.
Swimming and hydrotherapy pool
Get your child swimming in a comforting environment with our hydro pool. This is ideal for children with SEND and nervous swimmers, and can also become a sensory room with light projectors and a sound system.
Creative Arts
Our on-site art studios are a very popular and inspiring base for creative activities ranging from playing music to pottery. This is part of our holistic approach to learning and includes major art installations as part of our engagement with community arts.
3G Sports Pitch
We have a full-size artificial grass sports pitch to encourage young people to keep active in an entertaining way. The pitch can divide into two nine-aside or four five-aside pitches and features two fully accessible changing rooms and pitch-side facilities.
Children’s cycling and learning to cycle for disabled persons at Seashell
Seashell is a charity dedicated to providing a creative, happy and secure environment for children and young people with complex needs and additional communication challenges from across the country. Throughout the year, we provide care for many individuals and aim to promote an interactive and enjoyable way of learning and understanding the world.
We hope you’re as excited to get on your bike and come and cycle with us at our children’s cycling centre as we are!
If you want to know anything else about the cycle track, or would like to know about any of the other facilities we have mentioned, contact us on 0161 610 0100, or email us at info@seashelltrust.org.uk. You can also keep up to date with what we get up to on our news page.
