The New Heritage Centre

           

A Heritage Store was built at the rear with a Bio-Fuel Pellet Boiler integrated into the building.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This summer there is a display room of an old school class room, a display of Marine Craft Unit in their time in Alness from 1938-1986 and in the upper room a display of Alness at War along with other displays to celebrate 90 years of the Royal Air Force.

 

 
Small history of progress since 1999-2000

We moved into the Building in January 2000 having bought it from Sandy MacRae who ran a shoe shop there from 1969

We set up the shop with small gifts, and craft work from local knitters, sewers, artists and wood turners. We added a 25% commission onto their prices and worked from there. We also made large quantities of jam and tablet which sold very well.

We cleared and painted the two downstairs rooms and turned them into display rooms and started with displays on the Seaforths, Alness at War, house kitchens and school photo displays. As we went along and gathered more pieces we were able to extend our displays and tried to change them every three months to keep the local people coming in to see the changing exhibitions as well as the visitors. We decided to try and run the Heritage Centre with free entry to the exhibitions so that everyone would be able to drop in whenever they wished and depended on the shop and Alness & District times to provide our income.

We ran sales on the Bank Green and when we got the garden into some order we ran Easter and summer events in the garden including a Senior Citizens Tea Party every year at the beginning of June where we have 100-150 people each year. It was supposed to be a Millennium Celebration but they enjoyed it so much we had to continue it. We have been unable to have one in the last two years as we have had the garden fenced off first to allow the Academy Children through while the Tulloch housing went on in Academy Lane to the Station area and then because of our renovations. We also have a visit from Santa every year and made 250 Christmas wreaths this year, that’s our fifth year at wreaths They, and the calendars are a big part of our income. We had several sales, concerts and games nights in the Perrins Centre and made money whenever and wherever we could to gather as much as we could before we launched ourselves into our renovations.

By 2004 we were having schools, clubs, WRIs and many other groups visiting regularly and we went to Heritage Lottery Fund with a big renovation scheme to do the whole property in one big effort. They came back after saying on several occasions what a good project we had, to say we were refused as we did not do enough Heritage. We were absolutely furious, as was the town at large it being such a ridiculous excuse but after Joan went to Edinburgh to see them and being told they would be delighted to help in the smaller grant category from £5-50,000 as often as we needed it 5 or 6 times if we needed it!!!).

We went back to the drawing board. We applied for money for conservation and archiving material and received £30,000 plus then, after being refused permission for a fire escape on both sides of the building at the front, we suddenly came up with the idea of a stone stair from the upper room out through the back wall. Having consulted with Ian MacBeth we came up with a plan and by the end of 2006 we had gathered the money in various phases and got the planning through. By this time we had managed to raise about £65,000 in our own account in case there were extra things that might crop up. We decided that when we were started we had to have hidden defects repaired as well. It was just as well we did as we used over £40,000 of this in the end.

Just as we finished and decide we had had enough we got the chance of a Bio fuel boiler which was to go in it’s own shed in the garden We were not keen on using more space up in the garden but remembered we had an archive store already passed for planning in our earlier plans. We said we would have the boiler if they gave us the money for their building to incorporate it into our building and make the both projects run together. This is just about complete now and we are just about ready to get the boiler going as we speak. We managed to fund this with a grant from CRF along with the HIECEC heating grant and have used the rest of our own money to fund the extra £8,000.

We have received a lot of support throughout this project with money donations from many locals individually and through their club visits and we appreciate it all very much without them we would not have managed, The CED programme was a major help in our success and without it we would still be struggling along in our old building. The biggest single help we had was the grant, away at the very start of CED, for our printer. With it we have managed to raise thousands of pounds to keep the Heritage Centre growing and running. We now print A&DT every month along with 550 Calendars at Christmas for ourselves, calendars from the Drovers Project in Dingwall, Obsdale School Calendars, The Kiltearn News every three months, the Invergordon Gazette, The Ardross Alness Bowling Club Centenary Book, books for customers and publications of our own such as Alness Heritage Recipe Book, The Perrins Story, The Fyrish Story, Alness Tales and Legends, and the new Alness Heritage Poetry Book, we also print lots of leaflets and printing for clubs and residents groups throughout the area, in fact we have printed 1,107,000 pages on this printer now.

We have only two years left to pay of our £50,000 loan we had from Charity Bank so when we finally do our VERY LAST project and put in our kitchen we will have completed all we started out to achieve.

I already said that before we put in the store and heating boiler, but this time I mean it!!!

Joan Ross