Lowther and District Men’s Shed
Hi, all shedders, thought I would do a small write up of where we are as of this month.
L&DMS was started in February this year after hearing about South Lanarkshire Seniors Together and an article about Men’s Shed’s with a phone number for Paul Greechan (I think all shedders know the name) so three interested men from Leadhills Bob, George, and myself met Paul at Biggar Men’s Shed who were very welcoming, this was the point when our journey began.
Lowther & District Men’s Shed was born, Constitution in place and signed, Bank account open, charity status gained “heads down let’s go” at this point I would like to thank Paul for his total support in helping L&DMS, without his knowledge we would have found the road very bumpy.
Early in 2023 we heard through the grapevine that a building previously owned by the Lowther Ski Club was going to become available, a phone call made to Donald Noble Factor of Hopetoun Estates, Lord Andrew Hopetoun agreed in principle to let us have the building, and has from this point fully backed the project, giving us a parcel of land in the village with good access on Ramsay Road, and helping with the removal of the overhead main power cables putting them underground with a new route leaving the site clear for the next stage, many thanks SP Energy for their help in moving the overhead cables with no costs to the L&DMS.
The building sits 2500ft near the top of the Lowther hill, next stage is to get it moved back to the site in the village, we have been talking to architects, builders, and we are making steps forward, but now with the winter upon us working on removing the building will not take place until the spring 2024, planning etc will still be going forward hopefully all will be in place ready to go when the weather improves 2024.
We have over the last 8 months Applied for funding for the project, and have been successful in several of these, Leadhills Micro Grant, Robertson Trust, Lottery fund, we are in the process of hopefully gaining funding from CLLD. Will hear soon.
I would like to personally thank all for helping L&DMS and let’s have a great 2024.
Nigel Davies, Secretary L&DMS.