Why The Institute in Laxey in the Isle of Man?
The Isle of Man has been an English speaking tourist destination for over 100 years. It is fully setup for visitors. Plenty of banks and food outlets and good transport. As visitors everything works just like in the UK. Power sockets are like UK types with 240VAC.
Laxey
Laxey is north and east of the capital Douglas. Laxey is handy for the Snaefell mountain. Laxey also has a sandy beach so handy for kids and a harbour which is 15 minutes walk to the event hall. It has a camp site which is ten minutes walk to the event hall. Transport is good in buses, roads and Manx Electric Railway.
You will see many references to Laksaa which is the Manx name for Laxey. This is the old Norse word for Salmon River and is reflected in the many food outlet menus for salmon dishes.
The event hall called The Institute
Mining in Laxey started about 1780. The event hall was originally founded as "The Laxey Working Mens Institute" for the miners in Laxey from 1876. At that time there were no lady miners! Since then ladies now work in various places in Laxey (see Laxey 2012) and the LWMI has evolved into a refurbished community centre for all people of Laxey. So I will refer to the venue from now on as "The Institute".
It has a large upper hall with a stage and with high ceiling and lighting gantry. It has a lower room without stage and of normal height.
The 2014 building works, confirmed 17 May 2015 by David C., has improved disabled access with a new electric lift, new disabled car park, new stairs at building rear, new rear entrance and removal of awkward stairs in the middle of the building. Also a new kitchen with big fridge and new small meeting room has been built called The Captains Room.
We will use the new rear entrance for the event hall where it will be easy to monitor. The front entrance will be locked for general security as it is directly on the main road where there will be many people walking past. Also likely increased vehicle road noise due the A2 is effectively the main coast road from Douglas through Laxey to Ramsey with regular buses and many touring coaches.
The Institute, Internet - yes, don't worry!
ADSL broadband hardware equipment was seen installed, on 17th May 2015 by David C., during second survey.
It was not paid active on the ADSL line on this day due this is on a "round-to-it" list of jobs that The Institute volunteer committee have to do in their non-work time. We are confident it will be paid active by August 2016 so we are okay for Internet connection on site. There are also CAT5 cables in walls installed, to three Wifi Access Points, which we can use for our system install of bring our own. David C. has tested the LBW2014 Gateway IPv6 PC in May 2015 in the Laxey "Cronk Aash" rented cottage therefore confirming high confidence of the Laxey telephone exchange will meet our needs. The last variable is The Institute ADSL to be paid active itself.
Why not other villages in the Isle of Man?
We also looked at other villages with their websites of Ballasalla and Sulby.
Ballasalla had only one pub and no camping and no accomodation. It would also be noisy due very close to the airport. Sulby had only one hotel and one rented cottage and one buy-a-permit "unregistered" camp site without showers. Laxey is some way north from noise of the the airport and has a convenient campsite and Snaefell the mountain. So overall Laxey fits all our requirements.