Dave Lush at Lansdown Hall

I spent some time this morning encouraging a group of local artists to come to find out about the consultation process for the Neighbourhood Plan which we are launching in a week's time.  Stroud Valleys Artspace (SVA) is a very well respected charitable trust set up in the centre of Stroud where artists have workshops and on Friday's there is an open invitation to all local artists to visit their centre i John Street and meet each other. SVA organises the annual Site Festival as well as runs Open Studios for artists throughout the Five Valleys.  So these meetings are a good way for those with outlying studios to gather and share experiences and get involved in each other's projects.

SVA also have taken over the lease of the Brunel Goods Shed from the Stroud Preservation Trust, of which I am a trustee, who rescued the building and enabled its new use as an art space.  It has become a much appreciated new venue in town right beside the railway station.

As a town councillor I have also been involved in Lansdown Hall and Gallery ever since the council purchased the building about six years ago to save it from developers.  Our intention has been to make it into a parish or village hall for the town's community, with a particular emphasis on the arts.  I have been chairing the working group ever since and overseeing both the fundraising and then the application of those and other funds to the repairs and upgrading of the building.

We are currently nearing the end of Phase 3 of the project with one further big phase to follow in due course.  Now the ground floor gallery has been extended and improved, the building's stonework has been cleaned, all gutters and downpipes replaced, stonework repairs delivered, insulation fitted, new efficient heating installed, a wholly new electrical supply installed, accessible toilets for all provided, improvements to access from the town's high street and a new kitchen for the staff and the hirers of the Gallery to use.

Today I wanted to check how the latest work was going as the scaffold is expected to come down next week. Sue and Ned, who are key staff members of the trust who are our tenants in the building, seemed very pleased.  The latest news was that the rendering for the new extension,  built to provide extra back stage facilities, was being applied as we spoke, so I went outside to meet the plasterers.

Then I returned inside to the first floor of the Hall where I was delighted to meet this man, Dave Lush.  He has taken on the job of replacing the windows and frames of the building, bit by bit, with the worst condition windows being replaced immediately. Today he was putting in the reconditioned metal frames of the worst round windows which sit above the several of the main windows, and I wanted to see them for myself.

The new windows are to a new design from our architect which also incorporates a level of strengthening to the Cotswold stone window frames, as well as including double glazing into the intricately patterned glass frames.  We are so lucky to have found Dave as no-one else would or could take on the work.  Dave is usually employed by places such as Gloucester Cathedral on their stained glass windows, so his expertise is enormous.  To the right of his head in my picture is the first test window that he has now finished and it looks fantastic.  The round window at the top, which can be swivelled open for ventilation will be fitted later.  He was actually in the middle of working on the new ones high above where I was standing to take the picture.

I asked him if I could take his picture and he readily agreed although he was worried that his work clothes weren't the best.  I explained that I like to record or document all the works that have happened to the building and that having him as part of that record would be wonderful, and his clothes were most appropriate.  So I spent about one minute setting up  and then snapping this picture before I rushed off to avoid a parking fine, and he climbed back up the ladder with a new window frame.

Here is a blip of the interior

and here is the exterior