The Trust has a big education programme which is based in a tiny renovated cottage on the Woolmill site. It can only take 10 people at a time and it is hard work for anybody over 5 feet tall! We desperately needed more educational accommodation but getting planning permission to build on a listed site would take too long.
Jolyon Havinden, who is now the Knockando village blacksmith, had the great idea of converting his old 30ft 1963 Tracker single axle step frame lorry trailer into a mobile classroom (no planning permission required). It was bought second hand in
1979 by Jolyon, who was then a theatre engineer, as a mobile workshop. It worked in Stratford upon
Avon, the East Midlands and in London at the Round House and Riverside Studios, before moving north. Jolyon donated the trailer to the Trust, then he and the local joiner converted it into a brilliant classroom.
To transform the trailer into the classroom space needed the aluminum sides were removed and the roof was lowered. It
was then framed out and well insulated, with spaces for windows and doors. The
hut had to blend with the old mill buildings and was therefore clad in Siberian
larch which will weather grey and topped by a red tin roof. We have used
recycled window frames and other fittings left over from the main restoration
programme. The hut was moved from the blacksmith’s workshop to the Woolmill and
is now nestling in its new surroundings.
The hut cost £14,500 which was raised by the Trust plus financial
support from Scottish Natural Heritage. We could not start work until late
summer 2012 as wagtails kept nesting in the old trailer raising several broods.
The mobile classroom is now up and running, and we hope at least 600 young people will use the
classroom each year for Woolmill-related projects such as carding, spinning,
weaving and dyeing and environmental activities.
Thanks go to Jolyon, Willie and Chris for all their hard work!
