 What an incredible Sheep Fair Weekend!
Thanks to the hard work of many - a dark building site was transformed into a bustling grocers and elegant tearoom for the weekend. Thank you everyone for coming along and sharing just a little titbit of what will be at Peacock and Verity. It was a real pleasure to welcome so many locals and visitors into the shop for the first time since the shop doors closed in March 2020. Every moment across the two days were filled with the sound of excited conversations. People were able to talk with Directors and architects about the plans, the funding position, the intentions of P&V as well as just enjoying the period elements and memories... and the gorgeous soap made for us by the Yorkshire Soap Company. Having Jared selling bread brought the lovely bustle and smells that will become a feature of Peacock and Verity in coming years. Seeing Silver Street become a retail and social destination, basking in the sun, was a blessing. We, and all the traders on Silver Street, look forward to continuing to celebrate the street's Victorian and Edwardian splendour. Of course, we would not have been able to have the weekend celebrations without the support of the team from Factual Fiction, who are recording a documentary on our journey. Emily and her team were able to cover some of the costs of the weekend taster. From this have come several longer term gains - the shop frontage looked grand for the weekend thanks to Arthur Rayner, Ian Johnson, and Paul Humberstone - but it is also giving the very valuable gift of protecting the frontage for the oncoming winter. Sourcing food for the taster has enabled us to build relationships with our local suppliers. And, most wonderfully, our gorgeous wall oven has had some love and care from Osbourn Stoves! NO SPOILERS, you will need to watch the TV show in the spring for details! Our biggest thanks go to you - for supporting Peacock and Verity through our long journey and for the many, many volunteers who help along the way. Developments of this size can take many years to reach fruition, and it was wonderful to have an opportunity to say thank you for your support and give a sneak preview of so much more to come! A number of people raised questions about our governance and how the project is developing. You can fiind more information about our governance and the Development Phase that we are currently for in on our About Us pages.
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 We held four community planning workshops at Masham Town Hall back in January with the participation of school groups, teachers, local residents, history enthusiasts, businesses, and families. The sessions were organised by our interpretive design company Bright White Ltd of York.
The main objective of the sessions was to generate initial ideas for interactive exhibits and activities that will be displayed in purpose-built ‘boxes of discovery and delight’ at Peacock & Verity. These boxes will showcase the history and heritage of the town, focusing on themes such as farming, trade, and community. The exhibits will be interactive, catering to a broad age group, and will encourage visitors to engage with the material and learn about Masham's rich history. During the sessions, participants discussed Masham's origins as a crossroads for trade and its evolution as a centre for sheep farming and dairy production. They emphasised the role of Masham's churches and community events in shaping the town's identity. Local residents were also keen to provide insights into the lives of the people who have lived and worked in Masham over the centuries, adding a rich and textured portrait of this historic town. Local social history curator Virginia Arrowsmith also attended the sessions and generously brought along a variety of touchable and fascinating objects from the past. Everyone enjoyed hearing about their original purpose, and plenty of ideas were suggested for activities, games, and puzzles that could be included in the boxes. The most unexpected discovery of the day was the suggestion that Masham was the first place in the UK to use double yellow lines! Research into this fascinating story is ongoing. If you couldn't make the sessions and have ideas of what we could include in our boxes of discovery, we'd love to hear from you! Email us at [email protected]  We're delighted to have appointed Native Architects to complete the next exciting phase of transforming 15 Silver Street into Peacock & Verity.
Native are a York based multi-award winning RIBA chartered practice who specialise in delivering well designed buildings that are sensitive to their locality and constructed with natural, renewable and sustainable materials. They have an extensive track record of working on community-based projects and pride themselves on creating joyful spaces that do not cause harm to the environment. With its new identity and fully restored historic fabric, 15 Silver Street will showcase an Edwardian tearoom, a heritage grocers shop, a new history centre, a Post Office and affordable rental flats for local people on the first and second floors, and space for a Mashamshire archive. Jan Reed, Project Manager at Peacock & Verity, said: ‘Peacock & Verity is a really complex project with demands around heritage refurbishment, multi-use public spaces, levels, and a goal to be zero-carbon. In Native we have found a team that is invigorated by the challenge and open to collaboration, and they share our commitment to sustainability and conservation. We are very conscious of how rare it is to find such a firm and are really excited to be working with them.’ Sally Walker, Director at Native Architects, said: “Our combined passion for the historic environment and traditional buildings enables us to get the most from spaces without causing harm or damage to their architectural or historic value. We also fully understand the issues involved with working on fragile, often damaged buildings like 15 Silver Street and can go straight to the heart of the problems encountered. Our sustainable design philosophy and our commitment to avoiding materials that could cause harm to buildings and the environment is at the heart of all our work. We’re passionate about giving the built environment and the natural environment strong economic future uses and supporting local circular economies. The greenest buildings are always the ones that survive beyond their original expected life and can then accommodate new changes and economic futures.” Native have a vision of a more sustainable, low-carbon society, where the dependence on fossil fuels is overturned and where the anticipated effects of climate change on building design can be mitigated by the use of natural bio-based materials and thoughtful design solutions. Native’s approach to sustainable renovation will aim to balance energy efficiency at 15 Silver Street with the comfort and health of the occupants whilst considering the durability and condition of the building’s historic fabric. The building will incorporate breathable, natural, bio-based insulation materials like sheep’s wool, wood fibre, hemp and cork, all of which can absorb, safely store and desorb moisture. It is intended to employ a passive ventilation strategy to ensure good indoor air quality to the benefit of the occupants of the flats. Native pride themselves on being both innovators and pioneers with an overriding guiding ambition to design inspirational buildings that have minimal environmental impact.  A market town in the Yorkshire Dales might seem an unlikely place to find innovative solutions to the climate crisis, but Masham is set to become home to a new project which could revolutionise the building industry. We're leading an exciting new initiative to get sheep’s wool more widely used in buildings across the country! We're finding every way to make the refurbishment of 15 Silver Street as eco-friendly as possible. One of them is going back to Masham's roots to find sustainable solutions for our future. We're really excited and proud to be using sheep’s wool insulation as part of the refurbishments. But we didn't want to stop with our building! We're also leading on a new initiative called Sheepish which aims to get sheep’s wool insulation used in the building of new homes across the country. Peacock & Verity will be the first test site where contractors and builders can learn how to install sheep’s wool insulation. We'll also build a supply chain of farmers, insulation producers and social housing providers, creating a green circle economy based in Yorkshire. The project is backed by £38,722 from the North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub and £16,000 from North Yorkshire Council, as part of a larger grant of £273,000 towards the wider conversion of Peacock & Verity. Jan Reed, Project Manager at Peacock & Verity, says: We’re really excited to be leading the Sheepish project at Peacock & Verity. We didn’t just want to refurbish our own building; we also wanted to do everything we can to share the knowledge and skills to make other buildings more sustainable. The links between Masham and sheep farming go back thousands of years. Sheep farming is thought to have been introduced to the area by Viking settlers, and Masham is still well known for its annual Sheep Fair which takes place at the end of September. There’s even a breed of sheep named after the town. Karen Oliver-Spry, Hub Manager for the North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub says: The North East and Yorkshire Net Zero Hub is all about using local assets to create clean energy and to make buildings across the region easier and cheaper to heat – what better way to utilise an often overlooked by-product from the region’s plentiful sheep population!’ If you'd like to get involved in Sheepish please get in touch with us at [email protected] We’re thrilled to announce that we’ve successfully purchased 15 Silver Street and have received major funding to allow the building work to get underway. The transformation into Peacock and Verity can now begin!  The purchase of the building is a joint venture between Peacock and Verity and housing association Karbon Homes, backed by a significant boost in funding of £72,000 from Harrogate Borough Council’s Community Led Housing Team who have also awarded us an additional £150,000 towards refurbishment costs. The National Lottery Heritage Fund have awarded £71,850 to the project which will also go towards the major restoration and conversion. The first job for developers is to repair the roof, remove the old shop awning and restore the original Georgian shop front. The Mayor of Harrogate Borough Council Councillor Victoria Oldham and Councillor Mike Chambers, Cabinet Member for Housing and Safer Communities, met with our Trustees last week on the day that we got the keys to the building. Alan Hodges, our Chair of Trustees, says: The successful purchase of 15 Silver Street is a major step forward for Peacock and Verity. We’re extremely grateful for the generous funding from Harrogate Borough Council and the support from Karbon Homes which has allowed it all to happen. We’ve secured the building for the benefit of local people and visitors to Masham for years to come, and we can fulfill an urgent need for affordable rental properties to enable our young people to live and work in the area. Peacock and Verity will provide local jobs and unique learning opportunities for residents and visitors. The ground floor will be restored into a Victorian grocers from the 1850s, when the building was in its heyday, as well as an Edwardian-style tearoom inspired by the cafe which was part of the building in the 1900s. It will also bring a Post Office main counter back to Masham and create a new heritage centre celebrating the story of the town and surrounding area.
Four one-bed rental flats will also be created as part of the redevelopment. They will be managed by Karbon Homes and kept exclusively available for residents with a connection to Masham, providing much-needed affordable homes for local people. The development of the flats is being supported by funding from Homes England, through Karbon’s strategic partnership with the government’s housing delivery agency.  It has been an incredibly tough year. Nobody could have predicted it, and nobody could have understood how devastating and life changing it would be. It can seem as though no aspect of life has been untouched and normal is too far away. We have had to find new ways to shop, socialise, educate, work but most importantly care for each other whilst living with an ever-present and deadly threat.
Masham stood up. As one we have looked out for each other, made sure people had food and medicine, found ways to keep in touch when we are alone in our own homes. The churches, the community office, the cafes, pubs, shops, schools, every member of our community - we are all achieving the impossible; helping people smile and connect even now the days are short and grey. We see the spring shoots appearing - at St Mary's and at vaccination centres. At times it has felt like the project was just too much to do in the midst of a pandemic, too distant to be focussing our energy on. But somehow the train was already started and so we just kept moving with it and we are starting to see the results! The emerging reality of our vision for a lively space where you can live and breathe history whilst doing your shop or learning a trade. A safe home for those in our community we do not want to see leave town. All the many surveys and reports were written. The designs were drawn, redrawn and redrawn again, and the business models written and tested. Yes, things took longer due to Covid19 restrictions but also Zoom meant we could meet with architects in Newcastle more frequently, talk with experts from across the UK, and our volunteers stuck at home were able to give time to some of the detailed researching that has needed to take place. We are so pleased to announce that our Planning Application is now live. You can read about all our plans for 15 Silver Street. Find the place to sit and eat your cake and research your family history – or the plant room that will keep our tenants warm without destroying the planet! Our Design Statement is here We want Masham businesses to be an integral part of what is delivered. Could your business provide the cakes, the skills workshops, the old till, the cabinetry – just let us know! We want to hear your views. This building is for Masham. Covid19 has meant we have not been able to talk with everyone as much as we would have liked. Now is the time to tell us – Have we got it right? Have we managed to fit in the activities or services you want for Masham? Can you help make it real? [email protected]  As a non-profit community group relying on grants, unlike developers, we can’t buy the building first and then design how we will use it. We must do all the planning work – even down to the cost of every nail we will use – before our capital funders agree for us to purchase…. and this planning takes A LOT of time! So, what have we been up to? A not-for-profit company – Peacock & Verity Community Spaces Ltd – has been set up with the aim of planning, purchasing, refurbishing, and operating the building. The name was chosen because, as older Mashamers will know, the shop was run as Peacock’s, and then Peacock and Verity, before becoming Brayshaw’s. It was opened as Peacock & Verity following a refurbishment in 1914 Click here to find out what's been happening.. including surveying, designing and more!   As many are aware, we have long been hopeful of restoring and opening a heritage centre in the old bakery at the rear of Reah’s on Silver Street.
With the whole building now up for sale there is a much bigger opportunity presenting itself to the community as well as the chance to ensure the grocery, that has been a fundamental part of Masham life for over 300 years, is retained and cherished. Older residents will remember it as Brayshaw’s and before that as Peacock & Verity. The memories of taking fancy tea in the upstairs café, the feel of the old wood counters and the smell of the many exotic teas, coffees and fresh goods that were for sale by the pound. At the same time we look to Masham’s future; ensuring a vibrant streetscape of shops and businesses, embracing important new trends of low packaging, finding places that our young people can afford to live in the town they grew up in. The bold plan is to purchase the whole building for the community. Establish a fully operational heritage grocer shop (think Beamish!) and Edwardian tea room in the current retail space. A local history centre to the rear (accessed from College Lane) which will be centred on the Victorian bread ovens and include space for educational activities, archiving and research, and local history displays. Upstairs we plan to convert into much-needed affordable small rental units, ideal for young people leaving home or couple setting up together. The recent Housing Needs Survey undertaken by the local Rural Housing Enabler has provided much supporting evidence of the need we all knew was there. A new community group is being set up to deliver this plan in partnership with local organisations including the Community Office, the Parish Council and the history groups. We are working closely with the current owners to develop these ideas, and project partners include Harrogate Borough Council, Homes England, Broadacres Housing Association, and the Heritage Lottery Fund. Masham has always boldly created our own future whilst cherishing our independence – whether that be building our own gas works, generating our own electricity or providing supported accommodation for our residents at Maple Creek. Is this our next bold step and can you help? To find out more about these exciting plans or if you have skills, experience or time to help make these plans a reality, please contact Jan Reed on 01765 689702 or [email protected] |
AuthorUpdates are from the Peacock & Verity Community Spaces Trustees. Archives
March 2024
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