Over the years, wind and weather has wrought some damage to the courtyard area of our mews buildings. As well as hosting accommodation, the mews also provides a home for our violin making courses and it is our intention to extend the facilities to house new and improved workshop space for use in all of our craft courses. Next year this will include violin making, basketry, yurt making, mandolin and dulcimer making to name but a few.
Long term, the major development project will see the construction of a dedicated workshop space within the activity and interpretation centre scheduled for construction in the wooded area to the right of the manor. Delays have meant we have a real and urgent need to find a short-term solution to provide this much-needed enhancement to our facilities.
To date we have repaired the glazed canopy in the mews courtyard, replacing the old rusted steel support, securing the glass roof and installing new guttering and drainpipes. We’ve also installed a new water tank to bring the water supply to the mews up to a modern standard, and in the process we’ve cleared out a ton of debris from the old garages to house the new water system and to facilitate the conversion of the buildings into a clean and modern workshop.
We’ve also been lucky to receive donations from people who have provided us with the start to equipping the new workshop.
We’re very grateful to Simon Duckworth for the donation of specialist instrument making tools, to Ray Goodswen for a selection of small hand tools and to Brian Ferguson for the donation of a pillar drill. All will help to begin the process of equipping our facilities for next year’s courses.