7th March 2014
A grand old lady of Cumnock will soon emerge revitalised from a comprehensive makeover, revealing all her former beauty after months of pampering, as teams of skilled craftsmen lavish care and attention on all her beautiful features.
Cumnock Town Hall, designed by Robert Ingram and built in 1883/4, currently covered in scaffolding and a hive of activity as tradesmen come and go, is in the throes of a £770k restoration project, designed to restore it to its former glory using traditional materials and update facilities to cater for the needs of its 21st century users.
Funded partly by East Ayrshire Council with contributions from the Cumnock Conservation Area Regeneration Scheme (CARS) which includes money from Historic Scotland and the Heritage Lottery Fund, the work started in September 2013 and is due to be completed by the end of March 2014.
Leader of East Ayrshire Council, Councillor Douglas Reid visited the site to check on progress. He met with Willie Law, Site Manager for Clark Contracts, the main contractor on site, for a tour of the building.
Councillor Reid said: “We’re now starting to see the positive benefits of our regeneration and CARS projects in Cumnock. It started a few years ago with the resurfacing and landscaping around the Square and the Town Hall, then we built the Rothesay House, and since then numerous building owners have been able to take advantage of the funding to restore their historic properties. From the Dumfries Arms and the Royal Hotel, to some private residences and smaller shops, you can now look round the town centre and see the difference.
“But I’m very excited about this particular project. The Town Hall has always been well used for functions, clubs, performances and exhibitions, but it was looking tired, had problems with the roof and was difficult and expensive to heat. This work has enabled us to redo the roof, rewire, put in a new, efficient heating system, install lighting and cabling and reconfigure some of the anterooms to make them more suitable for meetings.
The beautiful cast iron balcony in the main hall is soon to be restored and will be fitted with a state of the art projector, which brings all sorts of exciting possible uses.”
Willie Law took Councillor Reid up to meet some of his team, including slater Charlie Stewart from Dumfries who works with South West Roofing. Willie explained “This has been a challenging project, made more so by the constant wet weather we’ve had since the start. We’ve been delayed a bit by the weather - it’s not ideal when it’s pouring with rain constantly and you’re renewing leadwork and reslating! Most of the time I’ve had around 30 men working here and we have a policy of employing local subcontractors wherever possible as long as they have the traditional skills required”.
“I love working on regeneration projects – these old buildings are all different and present different challenges but it’s great to see them come back to life. We’re recycling too - we’re reusing the original welsh slates as much as possible and Charlie is using copper nails to fix them in accordance with the rules set down by Historic Scotland.
“As part of the works we’ve restored an original balustrade. We had to get our stonemason to recreate the spindles which were missing. Fortunately we had access to reclaimed original Ballochmyle sandstone from a nearby demolition site which matches exactly with the existing stone.
“Projects like these have kept many contractors and traditional tradesmen going through the recession and we’re also lucky to be able to bring on and train young people in the skills, knowing that they’ll be able to get plenty of work keeping old buildings going in the future.”
Indeed the CARS team have worked with Cumnock College and Ayr College on delivering training workshops and construction skills training. Gavin Bullock, 19 is one who has benefitted, working on the roof as a Modern Apprentice doing leadwork and plumbing.
Councillor Reid said: “Today’s visit proves regeneration is about more than just buildings. Projects like this will have huge benefits for the community, providing a beautiful multi-use facility. At the same time it’s improving the built landscape of Cumnock, saving on future energy and running costs and giving people job opportunities and skills training which benefit them and the local economy. Above all regeneration is about bringing positive life to our town centres.”
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