Green Hive will hire a reputable local mason to carry out critical remedial and repointing works to the degraded stonework on the north gable at Seaman's Victoria Hall in Fishertown, Nairn.
Estimated Price
16782
Nairn River Enterprise (Green Hive) will contract a reputable firm of local stonemasons to carry out critical remediation and repointing works to the degraded stonework on the north gable at the Green Hive Community Hub (Seaman's Victoria Hall) in the Fishertown Conservation Area. The work will improve an important community building in Nairn, protecting users of the thoroughfare (managed by Nairn Common Good) immediately to the north of Seaman's Hall (running between Harbour Street and the public pathway that runs longside the River Nairn) from the potential for falling masonry in the future, while also enabling Green Hive to proceed with a secondary project to replace the three large windows in this elevation with new double-glazed units. Green Hive has already secured funding (from the Davidson Trust) to hire another local contractor to manufacture and install these replacement windows. The work will be taken forward in ways that are sympathetic to the building's architectural integrity, as well as the built heritage of Fishertown more widely. We are consulting with Frew Conservation (https://www.frewconservation.co.uk/) and would like to use the stonework repairs as an opportunity to pilot longer-term plans for the running of building skills training programmes for local people (esp. recent school leavers via DYW Highland at Nairn Academy). Green Hive is currrently in the process of registering as a Qualifications Scotland-approved training centre, and will be delivering formally accredited vocational and employability skills training for local people at the Green Hive Community Workshop at the Balmakeith Industrial Estate from later this year onwards. Our plan is to start including the skill-based activities we deliver at Seaman's Hall within our organisation-wide training programmes as soon as possible after that.
The project aligns closely with the Nairn and Nairnshire Local Place Plan, especially in its aspiations for Leveraging Heritage Assets (page 18), which states that: "Nairn town centre boasts an abundance of listed buildings that represent a rich historical and cultural heritage. Maximising the value of these assets involves not only preserving and restoring them but also repurposing them for modern uses that attract visitors and businesses". It acts as a meaningful adjuct to the Plan's acknowledgement (page 29) that Nairn Museum's "position as custodian of Nairnshire’s heritage and history should be strengthened, by integrating it with wider cultural activity". Seaman's Hall provided many of the historical artefacts that are now housed in the Fishertown Room at Nairn Museum, and Green Hive is keen to collaborate with the museum on plans for a 'Fishertown Voices' oral history project as part of the year-long Nairn Family Greenway programme of family-orientated activities taking place across the town from the 15th of May 2026 (International Day of Families). The Nairn Family Greenway project is supported by the Scottish Government's Whole Family Wellbeing Fund.
Our project to repair the stonework on the north gable at Seaman's Hall will help to make the building and its immediate surroundings more user-friendly and sustainable as a hub for local people - contributing meaningfully to the economic health of Fishertown and wider Nairn, and the long-term wellbeing of residents living nearby and/or visiting the area from other places. The work provides an important stepping stone in our ongoing programme of capital improvements at Seaman's Hall - including the installation of double-glazed windows throughout the building, insulating its cavity wall, attic and underfloor spaces, and installing a new air-souced heat pump heating system - designed to make our premises more welcoming and useable for the local community while also radically improving energy efficiency.
KEY MILESTONES:
1. Green Hive conducted extensive community consultations before acquiring Seaman's Hall in 2022. These produced 500 responses from local people, and indicated strong support for our plans to develop the building as a community hub.
2. Repairing and repointing the stonework at Seaman's Hall is a key part of our long-term capital plans for improving the building. These plans are incorporated within our formal Strategic Development Plan (2025-2030).
3. Seaman's Hall is in the Fishertown Conservation Area, but is not individually Listed. Our plans for repairing the stonework will be taken forward on a like-for-like basis, while our plans for repointing will replace the damaging cement that was used in the past with more appropriate and sympathetic lime mortar. As such, our understanding is that we will not need planning permission.
4. We have obtained estimates for the work to repair and repoint the stonework on the north gable at Seaman's Hall. Our preferred quote was supplied by a local stonemasonry fim that has worked closely with Frew Conservation in the past (including on prestigious recent projects in Inverness), and is well used to running skill training sessions for local people.
5. We are in the process of putting together major bids to Historic Environment Scotland and the National Lottery Heritage Fund (Scotland) for stonework repairs across the rest of the building. As stated above, we have been successful in securing a modest grant from the Davidson Trust to replace the windows on the north gable. This work will require repairs to the north gable stonework before proceeding.
6. Ideally we would like to begin the work on the north gable in Spring 2026 with the intention of having it completed (and the windows replaced) by Autumn 2026.
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