The FERRERS CENTRE -Time for a Revamp
Forty four years, – that’s how long it is since we started to convert the derelict stables at Staunton Harold into workshops and studios. There has been the odd blip along the way, but overall usage has increased steadily and for many years now all the available space has been fully used.
Last week Jacqueline and I took a day out to visit The Engine Yard at Belvoir Castle. We last saw it four or five years ago when it was an abandoned group of estate workshops and store rooms. Now the Duchess of Rutland has transformed it, reportedly spending more that two million pounds to create an out of town shopping destination. Much of it has been rebuilt, what was there before has been repointed and restored to create an amalgam of the old with the very new. Pristine brick paving, smart parking bays, lamp standards and planted areas; – suddenly the Ferrets Centre looked staid by comparison.
But ‘if it aint broke don’t fix it’ is a good motto, so for now we are just looking to replace the awning in the centre of the courtyard, itself more than twenty years old. Something bigger and brighter, maybe staying up all year – ideas please, – email: john@www.stauntonharoldestate.co.uk