Lancaster rural broadband volunteer recognised in Queen’s Birthday Honours

Val Winchester, who lives in Chapel-le-Dale, near Ingleton, has spent years giving her own time to make sure the community got connected to B4RN’s gigabit full fibre broadband.

Val has got a British Empire Medal in the latest honours.

She said: “The title 'B4RN Champion' always made me think of 'Champion the Wonder Horse' - which dates me - but the dictionary definition of 'a person who vigorously supports or defends a person or cause' is just right!

“It's been fascinating and rewarding - especially when I learn what B4RN has enabled the community to do that was previously impossible or difficult and when I think of future opportunities it opens up such as in community medicine.

"In many ways B4RN enables the community to participate fully in 21st century life - and I was so pleased that much of the dale had B4RN before the pandemic struck.”

Val is quick to credit the whole community.

She said: “Many farmers dug for shares and even people who weren’t interested in B4RN got involved. People would dig their own gardens and for neighbours – ready to help in work parties, if you called on them. It was a joint project and I worked with Coun David Ireton, as co-champions, during phase one of the project.”

Val first got involved with B4RN in 2016 after a meeting with then CEO Barry Forde in Ingleton.

Six years on and the local network stretches between Millbank in Ingleton to Colt Park, High Gayle and Newby Head.

Val says much of her role was coordination – raising funds, gaining permissions, organising work parties and encouraging involvement.

“One neighbour teased me, calling, ‘here comes the gaffer’ when I turned up!" she said. “I wrote lots of emails - more than 2,500 - but also spent a lot of time in muddy holes, joining ducting!”

Val expanded on what B4RN has enabled, for families and businesses.

“The kids down the road, two of them in the family and the [previous] broadband wasn’t fast enough,” she said. “They’d have to wait. One would do their homework, then the other. Meanwhile, one farmer had a lot of cattle and very unreliable broadband. His cows were fitted with sensors, so he knew when they were going to calve. He needed the reliability.”

Val reflected on why she volunteered.

“It’s actually rather nice feeling useful,” she said. “You get to know people. I found it very rewarding. I initially trained in landscape architecture. This is basically project management, so I liked reviving that bit. The infrastructure is like plumbing – you have to see ‘how will that get to there?’ – I enjoyed it.”

B4RN has been building a gigabit (1,000Mbps) capable fibre-to-the-premises (FTTP) network since 2011. It reaches into very remote parts of rural Lancashire, Cumbria, Yorkshire, the north east, Cheshire and Norfolk, and currently has more than 10,000 connected properties.

B4RN is a Community Benefit Society, and any surplus must be reinvested back into the B4RN network or local communities.