Renovation of “The Smithy”

The Trust purchased a small stone and brick-built building that sits on the Crofton site in November 2023. The building was almost certainly the old Smith’s shop during most of Crofton’s life and has obviously been used as a workshop for a very long time.

When the building was bought from the Canal and River Trust it had already been used for a number of years as a hot workshop by Crofton volunteers although it had fallen into disuse and become a glory hole. By coincidence, we had had a major reorganisation of our crew room and workshops, and the possibility of using the Smithy for something else arose.

The following considerations came into play:

Over the last two seasons two of our volunteers had been running a pop-up refreshment tent from a gazebo in the grounds. This worked extremely well, and proved to be a good, reliable source of additional income for Crofton. It also improved the visitor experience for the first time since the pre-Covid years, our visitors could get a drink and light refreshments. However, the gazebo was large, heavy, and did not stand up well to Crofton’s breezy weather. Neither did the volunteers who had to set everything up every steaming and then put everything away again at the end!

We have our own Learning and Community Engagement Officer who has worked with many local schools to encourage young people’s interest in the STEM subjects at school (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). This has proved to be highly successful and very popular, however having a space for groups of children that is easily adapted to learning and project development was a problem.

Could the Smithy give us a solution for both needs?

We divided roles, one of our catering volunteers acted as “client” and another volunteer as project manager with back up from “the Client”. Crofton is lucky with its volunteer base, we have electricians, plumbers, carpenters, painters and decorators, welders and a small army of volunteers who can turn their hands to everything from trenching to floor laying. A core group rose to the challenge, leaving others to carry out our normal winter works programme.

The first job was to clear the Smithy of its tools, its clutter and its dust. After selling some scrap, filling a skip, and our Henry cleaners many times, the true size of the room became apparent. We were blessed with a room that could function very well with a catering area at one end and a large open space at the other. This space is versatile and gives us room for groups of children and adults to work on projects or use the space as a meeting area.

Work began in October 2024, with the clearing of the decks and a survey and wood treatment of the roof timbers. A massive clean-up operation followed, everything from the roof lining to the floor, the walls and beams were hoovered, washed and painted. The massive roof trusses and lintels received the same treatment, restoring them to their original black. At this point the electricians stepped in, installing new heating, lighting, a frost watcher, and circuits for water heaters, chillers and AV wiring for talks and demonstrations. Plumbers also moved in and the space became a bit crowded at times!  Remember, we only work on Tuesdays and every other Saturday (during the closed season) with those Saturdays doubling as open days, the pressure was on.

Christmas came and went, progress oscillated from rapid to slow depending on volunteer availability and the fact that there simply wasn’t room for us to all fit in. Many volunteers gave several extra days to keep the project on time. In the bitter cold of a Crofton winter volunteers dug trenches to bring a new power supply to the Smithy, and to connect the sink drain to the septic tank.

We have just completed a highly successful first day of operation during our Great Easter Steam Up. We had a duo of visiting musicians sit and play for us and our visitors outside the Smithy while our guests enjoyed refreshments, cake and a wonderful spot to sit.

A huge thank you to all our amazing volunteers, those who focused on the Smithy and those that had to cover for all our normal winter works.

We were supported in our efforts by a grant from the Garfield Weston Foundation, to whom we are extremely grateful. We also found that the generosity of some of our suppliers was very great. We laid a new wooden floor over the old concrete floor and a scaffold company donated the number of scaffold boards we needed to completely cover the floor. Other companies and individuals discounted their material costs with the result that we were able to hold our budget to well below our original estimate.

We would like to thank all those who worked so hard, often in difficult circumstances to complete such a big project in a very short time.