AN EXCITING EVENT at the TOWN HALL on Sunday 27 September 2013

NEW THIS YEAR: Lockerbie Jazz Fesstival is spreading its wings to MOFFAT and there will be 2 gigs in MOFFAT TOWN HALL on Sunday 27 September. As well as tickets being available in person from Present Time, they are also bookable online a thttp://www.lockerbiejazz.com/index.php?pageID=166.
There will be a bar open for the event, kindly being run by THE STAG HOTEL, Moffat.
As you will see in the programme, at 12.30 p.m. will be the Champian Fulton Trio - hear a clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzCkDquycc4. 
At 4 p.m. will be Tim Kliphaus - hear a clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWRCYYurUI4
The timing of these gigs is just a few days before the official unveiling of the works that have been ongoing at the Town Hall since February this year.  It's all exciting stuff !!

Ongoing Kitchen works

I saw the early stages of the work being done on the kitchen yesterday evening.  The step down into the kitchen has now gone and so there is flat entry and exit to the kitchen from the Wedding Room.  The cupboard that was always kept locked now looks like a very useful storage cupboard - if it were in my own kitchen, it would make a wonderful larder!  The walls, where necessary, have new plasterboard and await plastering.  It's a large open space at the moment, but the potential is there to see.  It won't be long before it's a brilliant, much more usable kitchen!  You will be kept posted.

Scaffolding now removed from the Town Hall

I went away for a long weekend and, lo and behold! when I returned and drove up through the town, it was such a pleasure to see that the scaffolding had been removed from the Town Hall and the stonework was now revealed in all its glory.  Doesn't it look stunning?

In my view, that I believe is widely shared, the building now adds a real "presence" to the town centre.  The builders are working on the windows and there's still about 6 weeks' work to be carried out.

Here's a detail of the central gable showing detail of the sandstone carving.

KITCHEN REFURBISHMENT

The kitchen in the Town Hall is to be totally refurbished during the coming month.  The kitchen is extensively used by the Community for all sorts of events; particularly for the Saturday coffee mornings, where more than 200 cups of tea and coffee and home bakes are served by a willing group of volunteers. Much of the equipment is old and does not meet the latest health and safety standards.  It has always been the highest priority for the community for improvement to the Town Hall.  The Trust has been helped enormously by an enthusiastic group of volunteers in developing the plans for the new kitchen.

Thanks to funding support from Scottish Hydro Clyde Community Fund and Dumfries and Galloway LEADER Programme, the refurbishment can now take place.  We are delighted that Instock, a leading commercial kitchen supply company from Carlisle, have been awarded the contract.  They will be using local joiners and electricians during the refit.  There will be a totally replaced floor, hygienic wall panels, new worktops, new cooking facilities including a microwave and an instant water heater; a refrigerator, and replacement crockery, pots and pans and tea and coffee pots.

The new kitchen will provide up to date facilities in the Hall, and will provide enhanced cooking facilities which will allow the Trust to offer more extensive opportunities than have been possible previously.

Peter Beck-Samuels, Chairman of the Trust, stated “We are delighted after a number of years that we can now proceed with the refurbishment of the kitchen, and meet the community’s top priority. It will enhance the facilities, and further improve the use of the Hall, especially with its external face-lift as well”.  One of the volunteers who helped with the planning stated “We are looking forward to using the new kitchen, which is well overdue”.

Moffat Baths Hall

During the renovation work of removing the paint from the sandstone, the Trust were delighted to find a section of carved sandstone that reads "BATHS".  We assume that originally there was stone carved to read "BATHS HALL" or might even have had the word "Moffat" at the beginning.  This carved stone would have been installed at the time of the hall being built in 1827.  A Community questionnaire is available, one of the questions being asked is for your view of whether the hall should continue to be called the "Town Hall" or changed. 

It is quite remarkable how, during the period when the small section of scaffolding was removed to allow the Gala stage to be put in place, there were many folk surprised at how attractive the hall looked without a coat of paint and we hope to be able to keep it as the natural sandstone.  In this blogger's view (not necessarily representative) a natural sandstone building would have a much greater "presence" in the Town Centre.

The original "BATHS" carved sandstone

Partial removal of the scaffolding with the Gala stage in place

The 2013 Moffat Run

Always a highlight of gala week in Moffat, -the 2013 Moffat Run from the Ram to Ericstane and back took place this this Tuesday evening.

Despite the weather being far too hot for sane runners, there were healthy numbers from running clubs across Dumfries & Galloway, Lanarkshire, the Borders and Strathclyde, as well as brave locals, including two game ladies celebrating their 40th and a "scrum" from the Rugby Club raising money for charity.

I was hosting a friend from Cumbria-representing St Bees Tri-ers and we trotted across to the Town Hall to register his entry for this year-(I pulled the excuse of a bad back!).

The Town Hall is very much the support centre for the race and as well as registration and toilets inside, the stage erected out front for gala week is used for the announcements, prize giving and general urging on of competitors:

Come in No 22 your time is up!

The sun may have deterred some runners, but not the spectators and several hundred had gathered to watch first the junior races and then the main event;

The first runners amazingly completed the 15K run in around the hour point and were happy to sit and eat their medicinal chips and shade their eyes from the psychedelic orange t shirts given to each runner in their goody bag, while their friends completed the race over the next 3/4 hour.

 

 

 

See you all next year!!!!!

A mini-unveiling in readiness for the MOFFAT GALA stage

WOW !!  Along the 10-year road to work starting on the Town Hall, it has oft been said that the building was "an old lady in need of a facelift".  Well, with MOFFAT GALA starting on Saturday, a section has been unveiled to facilitate the action that takes place on the stage.  What do we see?  We see a section of the facelift work, and how fantastic it looks!  

It's much easier with the paint removed to see the wonderful carvings in the sandstone and the colour of that against the grey stone makes it stand out even more.  

Here are some photographs to be going on with, but enjoy what you see during all the coming week's MOFFAT GALA celebrations as we look forward to a full unveiling in the Autumn.