Update

Fabric Report Winter 2018

You will have seen a major change to the appearance of the Old Kirk in the past few weeks. For the first time in living memory we have no Bell Tower! This was demolished in the interests of safety, as it was showing the effects of structural degradation due to internal iron bars rusting and splitting the concrete and sandstone. We can now use the West Door of the Church again, now that the scaffold and fencing have been removed. We hope it is not too long before we are able to have the Bell Tower reinstated, as, to my mind, the Kirk does not look complete without it. There are many hurdles to jump before this can happen, but we are now embarking on that phase of the project. There are many exciting opportunities that will present themselves during the next few months when we will be discussing this next stage of the Restoration. We still have to look after the building during its annual three month rest period, while we worship at the Hall Church, it still needs to be kept ‘ticking over’ to ensure that the cold and damp, does not affect the condition of the organ, as we have found to our cost, when the building is left vacant over the winter period. There is still some outside work to be done at the Hall Church, which needs to be done over the summer quiet period, but due to technical reasons this has had to be carried forward to next year. We encourage continued use of the Hall as a venue for as many activities as possible. As usual with Fabric, there is always something to be done, as if we allow our buildings to deteriorate it will cost us a lot of money to put them back in good order.

Bill Davidson, Fabric Convenor.

A Restoration Fund was set up last year for anyone wishing to contribute to the future of The Auld Kirk, either by a one off payment or a monthly standing order can contact Sheila Sellar, Treasurer, or any Elder for more information. We will be setting up a 'Just Text Giving' and all information on how to Donate will be available on our Website and Facebook Page.