The future of St Margaret’s Church, Braemar

Published: Wednesday 14 October 2009

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Report on the Planning Day & Public Consultation on the future of

St Margaret’s Church, Braemar

4th and 5th March 2009

Below is the executive summary taken from the full report which may be viewed in PDF format here (2.49MB).

1. Executive Summary

St Margaret’s Church is a nationally important Category A listed building designed by Sir Ninian Comper, an internationally recognised Scottish architect renowned for his ecclesiastical commissions. The building is redundant and in need of capital investment for a major programme of repairs. The Diocese of Aberdeen & Orkney acknowledges the need to identify potential new uses for the church and is very supportive of efforts to identify these, but also wishes, if at all possible, for the building to remain consecrated for occasional religious use.

In 2003 the Scottish Redundant Churches Trust (SCRT) commissioned a Feasibility Study, which was funded by the Diocese and the Architectural Heritage Fund. The Study addressed options for the re-use of St Margaret’s Church and identified the potential for a sustainable mixed-use scheme. However no further progress was made. The appointment in 2007 of The Right Reverend Bob Gillies, Bishop of Aberdeen and Orkney provided fresh impetus, leading to a review of the situation.

The Bishop and SRCT approached The Prince’s Regeneration Trust (PRT), which, following a site visit and the preparation of an initial proposal on how it might best assist, was subsequently commissioned by the Bishop to conduct a Planning Day and prepare this follow-up report.

A Planning Day and Public Consultation was organised by The Prince’s Regeneration Trust in March 2009, as part of the process of establishing the feasibility of new uses for St Margaret’s Church, to clarify local aspirations and needs, and identify a consensus to move forward with proposals for its repair, regeneration and re-use.

The Public Consultation incorporated an Open Day, providing a rare opportunity for members of the public to view the interior of the church, a visit by pupils from Braemar Primary School who were invited to complete a questionnaire, and an Evening Consultation where members of the public were invited to express their views on what they considered to be appropriate uses for the building and the community facilities they thought would benefit Braemar.

The Planning Day was attended by invited representatives from a range of stakeholders, including the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney, representative members of the local community, experts in historic building regeneration, experts in tourism development, and members and officers of Aberdeenshire Council.

The Planning Day consensus was that despite the church having been closed for the past ten years and a local perception of it as being the ‘English’ church, the building is of great importance to the village of Braemar. It has great architectural and historic significance, and is important in explaining the history of the development of the Episcopal Church in Scotland. As such every effort should be made to secure its long-term future by identifying an appropriate, viable and sustainable new use especially for the direct or indirect benefit of the local community.

St Margaret’s Church is best suited to a mixed range of community or tourism focused uses which do not detract from the architectural integrity of its interior; that require a large flexible space; which retain the principal internal spaces without the need of intrusive permanent or semi-permanent horizontal or vertical sub-division; that requires minimal architectural alteration or intervention; and which complement and do not duplicate existing facilities in Braemar. The potential uses identified at the Planning Day were assessed against criteria established by PRT, based on views expressed at the Planning Day, to identify a range of preferred uses. The preferred uses are craft workshop, cultural/heritage centre, education, exhibition, office, performance, retail, religious services, restaurant/cafe.

St Margaret’s Church has the potential to make a major contribution to the local community and economy, either directly as a community facility or indirectly as a visitor attraction, and has the potential to develop wider synergies and strategic connections.

PRT recommends that the next stage of the process is to further explore the preferred uses identified at the Planning Day, establish the optimum mix of these uses, investigate the market and user demand, and prepare viable design proposals for the refurbishment and adaptation of the church to bring the building back into full sustainable use.

Subject to a decision by the Bishop to take forward the project, the following actions are proposed drawing on the findings of the Planning Day and Public Consultation:

To commission further work to update and expand upon the findings of the original Feasibility Study (2004) by The Scottish Redundant Churches Fund to explore and establish the optimum mix of preferred uses. This piece of work would require independent professional advice and funding to meet the cost of fees. This work would include:

  • Identification of a delivery mechanism to drive forward the project locally – this could be an existing local trust or a newly established single purpose trust
  • Assessment of potential user demand for preferred uses
  • A strategic review of existing community facilities in Braemar and the potential for rationalisation
  • Further investigation of the potential heritage-focused themes identified at the Planning Day for a sustainable visitor attraction
  • An update of the existing condition survey and associated repair costs
  • Identification of potential funding, in particular the availability of grants for repair and conversion of the church to the preferred mix of uses
  • Preparation of outline sketch proposals to establish how the building could be physically adapted and extended, if required, to accommodate the preferred mix of uses and optimise the use and potential income generation of the church as a community facility and visitor attraction
  • Initial consultation with Historic Scotland and the principal funding bodies
  • Identification and establishment of a model for the long term management of the church.

The above executive summary is an extract from the full report which may be viewed in PDF format here (2.49MB).

The text and images are copyright © The Prince’s Regeneration Trust and Diocese of Aberdeen & Orkney 2009.