Last Friday , September 23th , a group of 25 people got on the train at Waverley Station ,Edinburgh , to travel the Borders Railway , sketching en route. The day was organised by the scottish Government with support from ScotRail, the Borders Council and Midlothian Council to help celebrate year of Architecture , Innovation and Design and the first year of the railway being in operation . Ther group was lead by Susie Stirling from Architecture+Design Scotland and facilitated by Richard Rees , an architect/illustrator who helped and encouraged the group to observe  and draw along the route. Two stops took place in Midlothian , one to visit and draw the Mining Museum and cottages at Newtongrange and a visit to the Gorebridge Community Development Trust to see the regeneration work being undertaken by the CARS scheme and to look at the model of the Main Street in the Trust's office and to do some drawing. A very successful event with some intertesting drawings that we hope to display at some point soon .

The Gorebridge CARS scheme was advertised as part of Midlothian's Doors Open Day and a number of visitors came to the Trust's office in Gorebridge on Saturday 10th September to look at the scheme and see what has been achieved over the last two years.There were some people who were tracing their family history and two sisters were fascinated by the model of the Main Street in the Trust's office and talked about their memories and family connections to Gorebridge. A successful day .

The Gorebridge CARS Project Team has awarded another two building grants with the additional grant offered from Historic Environment Scotland . No 18-20 Main Street and 14 Main Street .Both are important historic buildings in the Main Street and their repair and restoration will complement and build on the rest of the work that has been carried out over the last two years .

No 14 Main Street , the work comprises:

• Removal of the paintwork on the front elevation to expose the orginal stone underneath and then to repair and repoint the stone in a lime mortar .
• Repacement of all the windows on the front elevation with new timber sash and case windows to match the orginal .
• Minor repairs to the roof and rainwater goods .  

No 18-20 Main Street , the work comprises:

• Repairs and restoration of the stonework on the front elevation and repointing in a lime mortar.
• Replacement of all the widows on the front elevation with new timber sash and case windows to match the orginal .
• Repairs and reslating of the roof to match the orginal slates, repairs to the rainwater goods. 

14 and 18-20 Main Street , work has started on 18-20 .

Gorebridge Community Development Trust together with Gorebridge CARS has been successul in bidding for a Climate Change Project from the Scottish Government . The approved project will involve working with local organisations to help raise  the profile of climate change and to develop more sustainable ways of living. This includes things like transpost , shopping , local heritage  , landscape and how we look after the local environment for future generations to enjoy.

An event was held with Gorebridge Primary School on the 31st May which included story telling , creative workshops , looking at solving environmental problems, it was an all day event which was very successfull in  engaging with the pupils , lots of interesting ideas that can be taken forward.Pupils were looking at life styles past and present and with the help of Mac Story , Fergus and Ronnie they heard stories with an eco message . 250 pupils were involved during the day.

There will be further engagement projects , one is planned with the new Newbyres Nursery which will be a crafts/arts workshop with the children. Another project is a heritage quilt which will involve all 4 local primary schools .

In November last year the Selkirk CARS project team came to Gorebridge by train , on the new Borders railway to see what we were up to . Both schemes are running to the same timescale , both now have 2 years left to run . It was agreed that we would have a return visit to Selkirk which took place last Wednesday .

Midlothian Council Members Catherine Johnstone, Jim Muirhead and Bryan Pottinger (also members of the Gorebridge CARS project team )together with Stephanie Walker member of the Gorebridge Development Trust and the CARS project officer Rod Lugg travelled to Selkirk via the Borders railway to Tweedbank where we  were picked up by the Selkirk team . 

The Selkirk team lead by Colin Gilmour ( Selkirk CARS project officer) and Mark Douglas from the Borders Council showed us around , many of the issues are the same , ie ownership , economic viability , persuading owners and contractors to use the correct historic building repair methods and techniques.The team at Selkirk have successfully repaired and restored a number of buildings and have delivered many interesting community education projects , including pop up shops and a pop up museum .

It was very useful to compare notes and to learn from one another , everyone enjoyed the visit and we were all presented with a Selkirk Bannock to take home for our tea , very tasty !!!. 

A big thankyou to the Selkirk team .

Pupils from St Andrew's primary school in Gorebridge took part in a storey telling event at Gorebridge library last week . The event was organised by the Gorebridge Community Development Trust and the school to celebrate the fact that Newbyres Castle has been adopted by the Trust as part of Historic Environment Scotland's adopt a monument programme . This is an initiative  where Historic Environment Scotland will work in partnership with the local community to adopt a local historic site to promote it's history and heritage , developing a programme of interpretation and education.It is hoped that a scheme can be agreed to consolidate the castle ruins , making it more accessible and understandable .

Fergus McNicol a  story teller came to the library and engaged with the pupils telling them stories of castles , princes and princesses , a rooster and bumble bees amongst other things !!!!, he sang a few songs on his guitar and got them all jumping about and keen to discover Newbyres Castle !!!, although once on site they might ask where the princess lives , where's the drawbridge and portcullis and what about the bees !!!!.