Craft workshops bid at Paxton

Paxton House, near Berwick, is one of the finest Palladian houses in Britain with outstanding collections of Chippendale furniture, Georgian costume and paintings from Scotland’s national collection.

Now a planning bid has been submitted to Scottish Borders Council to revitalise under-used farm buildings into business units at Paxton South Mains Farm, located close to the historic property but built some time later.

The alterations will repair and refurbish the traditional buildings to suit a range of modern uses.

The proposal is that an historic cart shed and grain shed are adapted and re-purposed to host a series of small workshops, associated storage and staff amenity spaces that will serve both the farm and new workshop tenants.

The changes are proposed with the aim of improving the condition of buildings that are currently underused and in poor condition.

The aim is that the small scale makers/creators/craft industries would be suitable future tenants for these spaces.

A report with the application says: “It is likely that this development of parts of the steading will be implemented in phases that assist with viability and mitigate against construction impact on the adjacent working farm steading and residents.

“Phase 1 will involve renovation of the cart shed and this will enable provision of one workshop along with enhanced farm office and shared toilet facilities (plus the first floor level accommodation within that building part).

“Phase 2 would involve conversion of the remainder of the application extents and this would provide both enhanced staff facilities and additional workshop space.”