Boathouse Project

  .

TALKIN TARN ARC DREAMS OF A NEW BOATHOUSE – THE STORY SO FAR

A number of years ago it was recognised that the agricultural shed built in the 1970s to house Talkin Tarn Amateur Rowing Club’s stock of boats was coming to the end of its useful life. The shed was falling down. The foundations were sinking; great cracks had appeared down the length and across the width of the floor and you could see daylight between the floor and the walls in places.

An earlier attempt to secure funding had almost succeeded but failed because the lease was coming to the end of its term and a new one couldn’t be secured in time. The funding application had to be withdrawn. Experts now estimated the boathouse’s remaining life span to be less than seven years. On top of the structural problems that were emerging it was obvious that the boathouse was far too small to house the increasing number of boats needed to support a growing club. Fitting all the equipment back into the boathouse at the end of a training session was like trying to make a jigsaw. Something had to be done and soon.

The Club’s 150th anniversary year presented the ideal opportunity and in February 2009 ‘Project 150’ was launched. This was an ambitious attempt by a club with only 50 members to raise the £250,000 needed to build a new boathouse in its 150th anniversary year. Members enthusiastically set about raising the much needed funds by holding coffee mornings, sponsored rows, dances, bag packing, quiz nights, car treasure hunts and a sub-committee was set up to explore grant aid funding. Local businesses and individuals generously donated money to the fund and one individual with no connection to the club even helped to raise the funds by holding his own sponsored cycle ride.
In fact it took almost two years and a lot of hard work by many to raise the funds needed, but in October 2010 sufficient money had been raised to enable work to begin and, with the necessary planning permission having been granted, the go ahead to begin construction was finally given.

Fundraising to equip the gym/training area and upgrade/increase the club’s fleet of boats is ongoing but you can follow the story so far from the demolition of the old boatshed to the completion of a dream in the pictures below......