Volunteers are to take over a derelict station building having secured nearly £300,000 in funding. It's taken 17 years, but now the Grade ll listed three-storey station building can be turned into a community centre with a studio for local artists.
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00:00 I'm Geoff Mitchell, chairman of this organisation.
00:03 And I'm Sue Mitchell and I'm a trustee and wife to Geoffrey.
00:08 We are in Maithamroyd, Maithamroyd Railway Station
00:12 and we're in what's called the former railway station building
00:17 which we have agreed to transform into a community hub
00:25 for creative arts within the local district, Maithamroyd District.
00:29 So I'm the chairman of the organisation and next to me is my dear wife.
00:34 She started as secretary and been general administration and keeping me on my toes.
00:40 In 2017 we were part of the Maithamroyd Station Partnership
00:48 which has restored the embankments and the platforms on a voluntary basis
00:56 and we decided, or the village decided, that something should be done
01:01 about this wonderful building that was derelict, boarded up,
01:07 in the middle of a listed building in the middle of a conservation area
01:12 and it was an eyesore and it was dragging everybody down.
01:18 So Geoff called a public meeting to see what we should do
01:23 and from that public meeting we got about 20 people willing to help.
01:29 We are now a charitable organisation called the Community Hub Maithamroyd.
01:37 From 2018 it became a project for the railway industry
01:43 and they've helped us, backed us and just generous really support for the project.
01:50 Otherwise the building would have gone back into rack and ruin
01:53 and it would not have been a good advert for the railway industry to have.
01:58 When we got in it was like it is now because no one was allowed in when it was before
02:05 because the floors were down here, those floors were down here.
02:10 So that's the state it was and so Network Rail commissioned the contractors to renovate it
02:20 and they've done a fantastic job.
02:22 They were helped by Railway Heritage Trust and Historic England and Community Rail Network.
02:32 We as a group have had the amazing help from Locality which is a national charity organisation
02:44 to help people like us who are volunteers.
02:49 It's going to be run for the community, by the community.
02:52 The railway will not be involved at all but we've got to keep it safe for rail travel
03:00 so therefore it's going to be let out.
03:05 The rooms and spaces will be let out on probably a six monthly basis.
03:10 Mostly to artists, they are shown a great interest because the lighting and the decor will be conducive to their work.
03:19 But we did start, after Covid, everybody was talking about working from home and not going back into the office.
03:28 So we envisaged hybrid offices here.
03:33 Like everything else we've got to be very flexible and we're not saying it'll be this or that.
03:40 It'll be worked on as per demand from the local community.
03:47 This was a levelling up office from the government.
03:50 It's been going for about two or three years now.
03:53 It's called the Community Ownership Fund.
03:55 It's on its last bid, it's bid round four, starts or finishes in a few weeks' time.
04:06 We were lucky after a couple of attempts to get about just short of £300,000 towards the renovation and refurbishment of the building
04:20 to make it habitable because there are no amenities whatsoever, from water to drainage to electricity, there's nothing.
04:31 So you come in here and quite often we're in here and we go outside to get warmed up.
04:37 It's that sort of atmosphere.
04:41 It'll be run by the community.
04:43 That's one of the main things that we are hoping it will continue.
04:48 It's a vision. There will be no bureaucracy, it'll just be people who are using the place will run it in accordance with what the railway dictate they can do.
05:00 The £300,000 has been match-funded by a £100,000 from Northern Trains
05:07 and a similar amount is secured from the Railway Heritage Trust.
05:14 So £500,000, party!
05:20 It's a dream come true.
05:24 Yes, the amount of support, as Suja said, the match funding is tremendous.
05:31 £200,000 from organisations.