Biulding Works day 4 - All done!

Today the building works were finished on the new building. Once Dave has finished his work in the pavilion, which will be very shortly, I'm sure he'll be moving on to work on the inside of this building. I would like to take this chance to thank all of the members of the project for all their work, effort and donations. Everything is done by volunteers (apart from this building project) so we can't thank them enough. We'd also like to thank all of the support and funding we've had from The National Heritage Lottery fund, Test valley Borough council and Romsey Town Council.

View from the level crossing



Cowley bridge signal box will probably be at the far end

Fence posts in place ready for our new gate

Biulding Works day 3

Today saw the completion of the outside of our new building. As you can see from the pictures, this is a high quality structure which will make the project feel like a new site.

 
 
 

Once the veranda was completed, the building team moved inside to start fitting the plywood on the inside of the building to hide the insulation.


Front doors are on

Windows 2015 ...

 

Putting in the ply wood

Unlike us members, the profesionals work a lot faster and its looking like they will be finished by tomorrow. This is all very exciting.

Have you met roof? We're supporting her...
 

It is sad news that we will not be opening this new building on our up coming open days (7/8th of March), but if you are keen to see inside, you could peek through a window, or ask one of our volunteers nicely, and I'm sure they'll let in for a sneak peak!

Final pictures tomorrow!






Biulding Works day 2

Roof on

Looking good!

Yesterday, progress on the new building continued. The roof was mostly completed, the walls are now self standing and the side door has been fitted. Work will continue on Thursday when the structure should be mostly completed.

More later.

Side door from the inside



Side door from the outside



Ceiling going on

Exciting news!!!! Biulding Works day 1

Outside view

Romsey Signal box is delighted to announce the arrival of a new building , A £15,000 hand-out from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Test Valley Borough Council is currently being used to build a new visitor reception and display area at Romsey Signal Box which will house our model signal box Cowley bridge and various other railway artefacts. The arrival of this building has been long awaited and plans have been in place for month for the development of the area of land where the old meat wagon used to stand. Volunteers have spent many hours clearing the land, digging trenches, moving sheds and lifting slabs to make space for the building.

 

Dick Hewett says “It’s absolutely fantastic that we have been awarded these grants.  They will enable us to take the whole project to another level, with far more professional presentation to visitors, and make it much easier to cope with the larger number of visitors we hope will come to visit us.  Together with generous contributions from Croudace Ltd, who have built the base of the building for us, and BHM Electrical, who will be installing the electricity supply and fittings, it has given us a real injection of self-confidence and renewed enthusiasm.”

 

 

From this

To this (concrete base below wood)

 Stuart McLeod, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund South East England said: “ The Romsey Signal Box project is a fine example of HLF’s Sharing Heritage programme that, thanks to National Lottery players, makes it possible for local people to choose what is important to them, what they want to save, and how they want to spread the word throughout their community.” 

They've forgotten the roof...

 



View from canal end of site

View from foot bridge over canal

Last month, Croudace, the building contactors on the school site, dug the foundations for the building and laid a concrete base for the building to stand on (as mention above). This was a big step for the members as this was the first physical sign of the building starting to arrive.  We hope to bring you further progress updates as the building develops, but in the meantime, here are the pictures from today’s work. We at the box are very excited and are looking forward to the new displays we can have and hope it will make your visit more enjoyable. 

 

You can come and see the changes to the site on our open weekend (7/8^th of march) and have a go at operating the signal box for the 150^th anniversary of the ‘Sprat and Winkle Line’.

Up coming opendays

Don't forget that we will be open to the public on the 7th and 8th of March! Write it in your diary, set a reminder, pin it to your fridge, be there or be square.

Also, don't forget that this will be in association with the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Redbridge - Andover line! There will, therefore, be a SPECIAL minibus trip along the roads that follow the line, see the Visit page for more details.

February 1st work day

A busy day was had by the members who attended our workday this Sunday and they should be proud of what they achieved.



 The day started out by tiding up the pavilion. The redecoration project in the pavilion started with the toilet, then headed for the main display area (which has been recently completed) and is now starting in the kitchen area. So with the recent worksite move, we felt things needed tidying. Dave is leading the project assisted by Peter and the young members and when the redecoration is complete, he will give a full report. Today he set about cutting the kitchen door in half for a serving hatch for the teas and coffees which will commence selling when we reopen. At the end of the day, the bottom half of the door was complete and the first ever drink was served (in reverse) over the counter (door). We also received a door (from Gavin Brooker) to go between the kitchen and the toilet (for hygiene purposes) which will be hung at a later date.
 

In the mean time, Peter, Dick, Jamie, Ben, James, Matthew, Josh and new member Colin continue the work with the cabling trench. The reason for this is to get power over to the far side of the site for future  developments. I am pleased to announce that the trench was finished on the work day, and now awaits the electrical cable, which is being kindly donated by a local trade man.  



Neil continued his gardening duties by doing some general trimming, completing a transplant of some plants that needed moving and he also started to apply some of the compost onto the flower beds. Compost has also been moved to the vegetable patch and will be turned in at a later date.