Update
Fundraising back on track
What a year we’ve had.......but what a year we could have ahead of us. New hope, new vaccine......new hall!
Crathes Hall was built in 1929 and is showing its age. The hall suffers from damp, excessive heat loss, insufficient heating, and outdated facilities. The challenge for us as the Trustees is to ensure that the hall continues to be a viable asset at the centre of this community well into the 21st Century.
After receiving support from Aberdeenshire Council through its Leader programme we were able to embark on Phase one of our project and carry out a feasibility study with community consultation, which resulted in us gaining planning permission and a building warrant for a new hall in February 2020. Then Coronavirus struck…..
However, Phase one is now complete and in order to move on to Phase 2 and the building of the hall we have to raise in the region of £620,000. We have already raised around £50,000 and in order to progress the new hall project a small steering group has been set up from the board of trustees with support from the Council and Marr Area Partnership. If anyone is interested in joining this group please get in touch.
The purpose of this update is to keep you all informed and let you know that we are making progress. The hall belongs to all of us!! We will welcome any ideas, suggestions you may have for us - visit the CONTACT page for details.
The Visuals
Fundraising
Crathes Hall was built in 1929 following a gift of land from the then Laird of Crathes Estate.
Since then it has been at the heart of the Crathes Community, hosting many diverse events and acting as a meeting place for local residents.
It continues to thrive at the centre of the Community but unfortunately is beginning to show its age. When constructed, little thought or consideration was given to providing a legacy venue for the area and so was not insulated or built with materials intended to last beyond the turn of the century.
Whilst held with great fondness to many in the area, Crathes Hall Trustees undertook to evaluate the worth of refurbishing the hall in its current state; given that it costs about £2000 a month just to heat!
Following extensive building and tree surveying, architectural and Community Consultation, in 2018 it was decided that a new hall was needed as the cost to refurbish was almost the same.
In early 2019 with support from Leader funding via Aberdeenshire Council, local architect, Andrew Keir, created the final design of the new hall and the plans were submitted to Aberdeenshire Council Planning Department for approval, which was granted.
The proposed new hall offers greater flexibility and user convenience with a choice of large and small halls whilst hopefully retaining all the charm of the hall it replaces. A larger kitchen offers scope to host larger events, weddings and other functions.
A small team of Trustees have begun the fund-raising project to source the £650 000 needed to see these exciting plans become reality.
As well as this website, the Hall Facebook page has details of upcoming events and ways in which you can contribute to this project that will put Crathes Hall right at the centre of the Deeside Social scene!
If you would like to contribute, please contact James Knowles on 07899 792297 or email him at: