Author: Elaine Polanski

Many of you may have heard through the Furnace grapevine that there are problems underneath the hall floor.

This has been an ongoing issue and we decided to get a full survey done of the hall. This was to include the floor, the roof, the wall, ventilation, rainwater goods, essentially all aspects of the hall, toilets, kitchen and bar area. All the money raised at our very successful Easter Weekend Fund Raising Event has been ring fenced to go towards the costs of this much needed restoration.

The surveyor was Ewan Stewart of Bowman Stewart and runs to 22 pages, including several pages of pictures. Ewan noted that he had visited many similar village halls and that our hall was in remarkably good condition for it’s age. Please contact Elaine at [email protected] if you would like to read the survey.

1. For those who don’t have a spare afternoon to wade through the report the main (Urgent) points are listed below.
2. Probably built in the late 19th century, the hall is in overall good condition and structurally sound.
3. Urgent – Overhaul/renew rainwater goods – This is being done under the Hall Renovations programme.
4. Urgent – Address poor slating at rear pitch/replace slipped slate on front – This will need to addressed asap.
5. Urgent – Some significant decay to the joist ends and the moisture content of the joists and the wall plate were excessive. There are also beads of moisture to the underside of the floorboards suggesting condensation is a problem. Although the floor structure is not considered unsafe, repairs are needed to prevent deterioration and address what appears to be a longstanding problem with moisture.
6. Staining to the hall ceiling was noted and this corresponds to water ingress due to the missing slate.

Point 3 & 4 above are the 2 urgent areas of concern. Our next step is to have the perimeter floorboards lifted and inspected to ascertain the extent of the rot. We will then be at the point of being able to get quotes to do the jobs. We will be looking at Grant funding and probably more fundraising.

There were other repairs noted as being needed in the survey. Some of these are already underway in the Hall Renovation programme. Those that aren’t included are recommended as being done in a 5–10 year period.

If you have any questions about this or any other matter you think the SCIO can help with, please get in touch. We’ll do our very best to answer your questions.

Furnace Community SCIO – Working on behalf of the Village and People of Furnace

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In December 2020 the SCIO was rewarded a grant of £12468.40 from An Suidhe Find farm Trust to enable much needed hall refurbishments. The list of the work, which is already underway, is set out below. The SCIO feel the works are long overdue and it will be great to have the hall looking new and refreshed for when we are able to open and host events again.

Electrical works

• Replace 4 x ceiling lights with 4 x LED equivalents, hanging on chains
• Wire new socket in entrance hall
• Change 3 no heating points to twin sockets in bar area (inc new RCBO)
• Wire external socket on side of shed in garden area
• Wire 3 x external lights on rear fence, switched from inside shed
• Replace fluorescent light with LED equivalent in store

Interior and exterior painting and decorating

• Rub down, fill, caulk all external woodwork
• Undercoat and apply 2 coats of weather shield external gloss to external woodwork
• Re-putty, fill, caulk and make good all external windows.
• Spot prime bare wood on windows
• Undercoat and apply 2 coats weather shield external gloss to windows
• Stain Block all damp areas through hall
• Sand down all woodwork in hall
• Fill, caulk and undercoat all woodwork in hall
• Gloss spray all woodwork in hall
• Fix all cracked plasterwork in hall
• Spray emulsion walls and ceilings in hall

General Work

• Supply and fit new 5 lever mortice latch to front door
• Supply 10 x keys for new lock
• Replace any rotten timbers to external facia and soffit
• Supply and fit new black seamless aluminium guttering
• Supply and fit new black upvc downpipes

Furnace Community SCIO 04/04/2021 

After a full year of lockdown and only being able to see and talk to folk at a distance, Furnace had an Easter Saturday to remember this year. The SCIO wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their support of the Easter Raffle and to those who came to the event outside the village shop. 

After raising £600 for the Christmas Raffle, we wondered whether it would too soon to ask for more donations, more raffle ticket buying. It soon became clear that, as always, it wasn’t too much to ask. We raised a magnificent £760! 

David and Cindy, super keen as always to help out, said they would host the tombola,(and what a tombola it was!) table top sales and the Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. Not a rep or a customer was allowed out the shop without donating or buying. 

Meanwhile the bakers and gardeners of the village and surrounds were busy making delicious cakes for the cake stall. Seeds were planted, nurtured and potted on. Plants were lifted, divided and begged to thrive.  

A couple of SCIO members had the unenviable task of separating and folding thousands of raffle tickets.. so much fun!! 

And so to the day. Would all that effort be worth it? Would anyone come? Would we be able to raise even more money? 

The answer of course was YES! The turnout was amazing, way beyond expectation. Everyone adhered to the Face Mask and No Hugging (So, so difficult)) rules but the smiles as people greeted their friends and neighbours could not be hidden despite the masks. Watching the kids running round looking for Easter eggs and the Golden Egg to win the giant bunny was a joy to see. Everyone attending waited patiently in the queues at all the stalls and no-one minded because the sun shone for us. What a glorious day. 

 So all the baking and planting and coaxing donations and ticket sales, the sore feet when it was all over… worth every minute.  

Overall we raised a magnificent £1923.50 

From everyone on the SCIO to all the Furnace Folk & Friends 

Thank You – This kind of money is raised only by your huge and continued generosity 

All money raised will be going towards the Hall Floor Fund – More news on this coming soon 

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It’s not normal behavior to take an evening stroll, walk through neighbours gardens and peer in their windows but on Friday 4th December this year, the year of Covid-19, things were a bit different as Furnace Christmas lights were switched on and many of villagers took up the challenge to decorate their windows in a Winter Wonderland scene. 

The weather was perfect, a cold, star filled sky. Everyone had dressed appropriately and with the addition of face masks, it was hard to recognise friends and neighbours. The big countdown commenced and low & behold the tree and hall lit up to the sound of clapping, gasps and hurrah! The crowd then joined in a hearty rendition of some Carols led by Furnace’s own Wilf & Barbra Stout. 

The village walk then commenced with various groups taking different paths and roads. And what a sight it was, so many people had put in so much effort. There were snowmen, lots of Santa’s, robins and angels, stars and lights galore.

We even had a stained glass window & a tiny street of houses lit up and surrounded by fir trees. So much to see and of course, we had to walk through gardens to have a closer look. We must give a special mention to the giant reindeer, all hand made by David, which popped up in various gardens. 

Overall, it was a sight to see and having spoken to Furnace Folk on the walk, it was obvious that not only did everyone love and appreciate the effort that had been put in but they thoroughly enjoyed the time spent chatting to friends they hadn’t seen much throughout the long months that had gone before.