Funding blow for trust's purchase of artist's home

The late artist Tim Stead's home has been described as having a "wooden heart"

A trust seeking to safeguard a house with a unique wooden interior for the nation said its request for key funding had been knocked back.

The Tim Stead Trust (TST) hoped to secure £450,000 to buy The Steading near Lauder in the Borders.

It applied to the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF) for the support, but the trust said the bid had been unsuccessful.

TST said it was now likely the property would be sold on the open market.

• Anxious funding wait for house with a wooden heart

Artist and designer Tim Stead was renowned for his work with wood, with public commissions including furniture for the Glasgow restaurant Cafe Gandolfi and the Papal Throne for the visit of Pope John Paul II to Edinburgh in 1982.

The Steading became his family home in 1980 and he refurbished the interior and created all the furniture and fittings out of local wood before his death in 2000.

The trust was formed in 2015 with a view to safeguarding the property and its contents and has examined a range of possible funding sources to purchase the building from Mr Stead's widow, Maggy, who is supportive of their efforts.

The trust hoped to buy the house to open it up to the public as a "complete centre for everything Tim Stead stood for".

The Tim Stead Trust wants to safeguard the property for the nation

Following the rejection of its funding application, TST has now appealed for help from the public in raising the money needed to buy The Steading.

NHMF said it recognised the heritage and aesthetic significance of The Steading, but had concerns the current proposal was "too high risk" and faced challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

TST chairwoman Nichola Fletcher said: "We dispute that.

"Our project is eminently viable and, given that the purchase is for buildings which could be sold if need be, the risk is minimal.

"Our project is particularly Covid-secure, being small, rural, and not reliant on catering or retail sales. Maggy Stead was offering to gift Tim's entire archive and collection, worth over £250,000, as our contribution, so we are both disappointed and perplexed by this decision."

NHMF said: "The consideration of the National Heritage Memorial Fund Panel was that the current proposal was too high risk to consider as an acquisition grant and would not deliver a viable future for the site, particularly given the additional challenges resulting from the Covid-19 crisis.

"For this reason we have taken the difficult decision not to accept a further formal application for funding from the Tim Stead Trust at this time."