As some of you are probably aware, the Stow Community Trust has
been actively pursuing the possibility of taking over the station building
and putting it to some use which would complement both the village
and the railway once the latter opens next September. In fact it’s
almost two years since we first made contact with the Estate Manager
at Network Rail and were given access to the interior of the building.
This allowed us to measure up the size and layout of the rooms and to
draw up very tentative proposals for what could be done. NR seemed
to be impressed and gave us their support in principle, since which
time we have had regular contact with them through the site offices
at Fountainhall. However there has been no progress regarding the
terms of a lease etc., although we expect this to be resolved, one
way or the other, by the early spring, at which point we intend to call a
public meeting. Even if no agreement can be reached with NR, there
is still the possibility of setting up a Friends of Stow Station group,
so a meeting will be called regardless. As we would like to establish
a core email list of interested people, it would be helpful if you could
contact either Bill Jamieson at sparrowcastle@btinternet.com or
Alan McNeilly at A.McNeilly@ed.ac.uk
A further idea we have been pursuing is to establish a joint Waverley
Route / Stow Museum and to that end an initial meeting has been held
between the Community Trust, Stow Archive and the Waverley Railway
Heritage Association (based at Whitrope). As the indications are that it
is now unlikely any rooms in the building will be put to railway use,
there would still be plenty of space available to use for other purposes.
If you have any Waverley artefacts or photographs which could be made
available, any of these community groups would be delighted to hear
from you
