We’ve had more good news on funding this week, with Yatton Parish Council pledging £1,000 for the provision of disabled toilets for the cafe – as long as we can get funding from the Department for Transport’s ‘Access for all’ scheme, which we’re waiting to hear about. We’re grateful to the council for their support, which continues to push up our total.
There are a couple of additions to the web site to point out – first, you’ll see that there’s now a button on the left which you can use to donate to the project using PayPal. Although we’re doing well with our grant funding, we still need to match a lot of these funds with money we’ve raised ourselves, so please help if you can! There’s also now a presentation about the cafe on the FAQs page – this describes the project in a few slides, and sets out where we are now.
Meantime we’ve been looking down drains… the toilets in the cafe obviously need to connect up to the sewer somewhere, but we don’t know at the moment quite where this is. We’ve therefore had engineers flushing dye down the pan and seeing where it comes out – hopefully they’ll find a drain soon and avoid having to dig our own!
We’ve just heard that our application for a grant from the Railway Heritage Trust has resulted in an offer to the project of £65,000 – this is great news, and represents the first big slice of the money we need to develop the cafe. The Trust is an independent company, sponsored by Network Rail and BRB (Residuary) Ltd, and its role is to support the conservation and restoration of historic railway buildings and structures. The grant means that our architect can now work with the Trust to draw up a detailed specification to ensure that the restoration work conserves and enhances the historic features of the building.
Yatton’s Listed Railway Station
This grant will also really help us with the applications we’re making to other funders, and gives us some momentum as we reach the end of the year, so we’re hugely grateful to the Trust, as well as to all our supporters, for their help in taking the project forward.
We’re hoping to be able to give you more news soon on where things stand with our fundraising overall – in the meantime, we need to keep working to build up our own matching funds, so please support us at the Yatton Infant School Fayre on 5th December, and watch out for our upcoming Prize Draw, with some seriously impressive railway-related prizes!
The project will be running a stall at the Yatton Infant School Christmas Fayre on Saturday 5th December from 3-5 pm. Do you have any small items (preferably new, for children or adults) that you could donate for our tombola? If so, you can support us by dropping them off at 33 Court Avenue, Yatton (and by coming to the Fayre!).
At the second evening this year for steam railway enthusiasts, local rail buff Roy Patterson led off with slides of British Rail steam in Somerset and Devon, and Trevor Riddle presented the stories of industrial locomotives built in Bristol by Avonside Engine Company and Peckett and Sons. Illustrated by slides from the 1960s, Trevor explained how many different industrial sites and factories used the literally thousands of steam engines made in Bristol, one even being exported to Christmas Island for use in a phosphate works. At the Yatton Books and Prints railway book stall, local railwayman Colin Forse signed copies of his book, A Life on the Railway, the profit from which is being donated to the project. 200 copies of the book have been sold in the past three weeks, 39 alone at the steam evening. Thanks to the generous support of the Horsecastle Chapel, the event made almost £300 for the project.
A reminder about our Steam in Colour event at Horsecastle Chapel, Yatton on Tuesday 10th November, starting at 7.30pm. Local resident Roy Patterson will be showing slides of BR steam in Somerset, Devon and Dorset, and Trevor Riddle’s slides show 1960s industrial steam locos built in Bristol by Avonside Engine Company (Fishponds) and Peckett and Sons Limited (St George). As well as this, there’ll be a Yatton Books and Prints bookstall selling Colin Forse’s book A Life on the Railway, and Colin will will be on hand to sign it. He’ll also be talking more about some of the tales in the book, and showing some slides too. Brandon Trust catering students will be providing refreshments, so it promises to be a great evening, and excellent value at only £2.50 – hope to see you there…
Comments Off 
Themocracy