Reviving a town with traditional building skills

Adam Molyneux said it was good to learn skills while giving something back

Young people in a quiet corner of southern Scotland are restoring the area's crumbling buildings by learning traditional craft skills.

Their latest project tackled a centuries-old property on Whithorn's High Street which lay roofless and derelict for decades.

Building Futures Galloway (BFG) teaches at-risk skills like stone masonry while providing employment for young people from rural communities.

The scheme emerged after the Covid pandemic when traditional industries like restaurants were still recovering.

9 High Street lay derelict for decades before the project started

Behind the scaffolding and stonework are 10 young people gaining hands-on experience.

Adam Molyneux, 22, has been with the team since the start.

He was on universal credit and struggling to find permanent work when he joined BFG.

"I hadn't had a real job before, to be honest," he said.

Adam said the craft role has built both his confidence and practical skills, all while earning the real living wage.

"I have ADHD, so I'm not very good with doing the same repetitive task all day long," he said.

The roof was the first thing that needed fixed

Instead the variety of hands-on work, fixing walls and building roofs keeps Adam focused and engaged.

He added that locals stop by with a smile to look at the building.

"I think everybody's quite happy with what we're doing," he said.

"It does kind of feel like my own village and nice to think that we're helping the town come back to what it used be."

The project hopes to provide crafts skills to keep fixing crumbling buildings

BFG has seen 20 trainees through its ranks but the team has also trained more than 120 pupils from the nearby Douglas Ewart High School in Newton Stewart since 2021.

Volunteer Julia Muir Watt said the project "joins up the dots" linking young people who need opportunities with buildings that are in dire need of repair.

"There is often a skill shortage in rural areas when it comes to 'heritage skills'," she said.

"That area is really needing new young recruits."

Lead skills trainer Shaun Thomson agrees. He lives in Whithorn and said the area had a particular need due to the high number of listed buildings.

"You struggle to get a tradesperson who can use traditional skills to make the correct choices in the repair and the maintenance of the building," he said.

"It's very important for the area, the buildings, to look after them, but also to pass on the skills because there'll be a time where you won't have anybody who can pass them on."

Retired firefighter Shaun Thomson hopes to keep traditional craft skills alive

Historic Environment Scotland - which provided funding for building restoration in Whithorn - has previously highlighted the need for endangered traditional skills.

"Scotland needs to scale up its training opportunities in heritage skills as demand is rising rapidly due to the need to repair and retrofit traditional buildings," it said in March.

"Around 71% of traditionally-built housing in Scotland is in need of critical repair."

It estimates 10,000 new jobs are needed over the next decade to do that work.

Repairs on the 200-year-old stone structure are nearing completion

One of those buildings in need of critical repair was 9 High Street. It had no roof, no back wall, wobbly chimneys, even a tree growing from the roof.

"From our point of view it offered every single skill that you could wish for if you're going to train in traditional buildings," said Julia.

The project recycled material on site and used traditional materials like lime and local greywacke sandstone.

The roof was made from local timber and squared using "medieval axe techniques".

"There are only about 360 traditional masons left in Scotland, which is a tiny number when you think of our vast numbers of stone buildings," Julia said.

Work is already under way on the team's next project repairing Whithorn's old town hall.

Concrete will be removed and replaced with traditional materials on the town hall

Hazel Smith, a chartered architect and a 20-year Whithorn resident, called the repairs fantastic.

"It was such an eyesore on the streetscape and I know the neighbours had a terrible time with the water ingress into their house," she said.

"I think people are just delighted to see these old buildings being cared for and nurtured in the right manner with knowing that they've got the skilled workforce working on them and that they've got a future."

Positive impact

All of which, Julia said, provided a "good example of how young people can be seen positively rather than negatively in a local community".

In return, they get meaningful work which encourages them to stay and help revive a rural area.

"I think I'd just like to keep going along with it and I think we also want to start trying to train other young people to keep these crafts going," said Adam.

"The long-term goal of this project is to keep these traditional crafts alive."