Sopwell Residents Association – Making Sopwell a Better Place

Explore everything we do at Sopwell Residents Association…

Sopwell Residents Association (SRA) is a lively active group and represents around 7,000 people in 3,000+ households in the Sopwell Ward of St Albans.

See Parish Council Campaign Actions for Residents

See the Sopwell Events calendar for all events.

See our Sopwell ward profile to read more about the make-up of where we live.

Thank you to all of the sponsors of the Cottonmill Gathering 2026 who are helping this community event possible!

We deliver our 4-page SRA Newsletter ‘Community News’ to all households in spring and Autumn. Download the latest copy here.

NEWS UPDATES: You can also sign up here to our occasional news update by email for reminders of local events.

Read our 2025 Report with Future Plans here

St Albans Parish Council Campaign – read more on our web page here

Two teams from the SRA Events Team got both first and second place in the Great St Albans Challenge 2025 -raising money for local charity Youth Talk– youth mental health issues.

We share news and events on our social media pages with 3,000+ followers! We have a lively committee that meets regularly often with reps from local police, local councillors faith groups, community groups,and others. We represent Sopwell ward on the council’s City Neighbourhood Committee, along with other ‘city centre’ resident associations.

Contact your local councillors:

St Albans District Councillors are: Cllr Harriet Sherlock; Cllr Sarwar Samsher; Cllr Jesus Pastor.

Herts County Council Councillor covering Sopwell is Cllr Sandy Walkington

Join SRA Facebook group for news/events!
SRA Community News Newsletter
Sign up to our occasional email SRA Updates for latest news
See Sopwell eco-stars events here
See website menu for more:

Our 4 sub-groups organise events and work with local community groups:

Events Group – who organise local events including Autumn Festival; the Cottonmill Gathering summer festival, Quiz Nights & more!
Cottonmill and Sopwell Hub group (CaSH) – who campaigned to get the Cottonmill Centre built – and are now getting a playground built on site.
Sopwell eco-stars – organising Repair Fairs, Energy events, pre-loved sales for children and adults, and Sustainable Cooking events – growing environmental sustainability and community resilience on our patch!
Abbey Station Friends – volunteers at the Abbey Station; gardening, art, work on disability access and more!

Sopwell Memories

Sandy Norman, an SRA committee member for many years, now looks after the extraordinary Sopwell Memories website and wrote a wonderful book – all about the history of Sopwell. You can see more – and buy the book -on the Sopwell Memories website.

Cottonmill Community and Cycling Centre

The Cottonmill Community and Cycling Centre is off Old Oak, Cottonmill Lane, AL1 2EF. It is owned by the council, and run by Everyone Active. Did you know it is fully accessible and has a ‘Changing Places’ accessible toilet? Join the Cottonmill Centre Facebook Group here for Whats On. For hall hire please go to Everyone Active

PAST EVENTS

Community preparing for an Emergency – Sopwell eco-stars event March 2025. Get in touch with Sopwell eco-stars here

Over 30 local Community Leaders and residents gathered for this event. It was a pilot event facilitated by Communities Ist, and organised with Sopwell eco-stars. Future work will be to create an Emergency Plan for Sopwell.

COTTONMILL GATHERING: Now in its 3rd year!

1,000+ people came to the Cottonmill Gathering in July 2025 – a huge community summer festival – in the heart of Sopwell. We enjoyed games, music all day, inflatables, story-tent, henna hand-painting, face painting, police visit, charity stalls, local business stalls, great food, much fun. Thanks to all the 40+ volunteers who made it happen, and thanks to everyone who came along on the day!

SUSTAINABLE COOKING SESSIONS – with Sopwell Eco-stars

AUTUMN FESTIVAL 2024

REPAIR FAIRS – with Sopwell Eco-stars

Broken toaster, kettle, bike, quilt cover, more? Don’t chuck it! Refreshments while you wait and knife-sharpening demonstration. Organised by Sopwell eco-stars to encourage us all to keep the stuff we’ve got – to reduce, repair and re-use!