Bid for new Biggar Museum

The new museum will rehouse both Moat Park and Gladstone Court – although its street of shops will be re-erected in the new

building – and also allow the Trust to sell off Lamington and Walston Churches which are currently used for storage.

"It is a very exciting project," said Trust Chairman James

Dawnay. "But it will depend on our ability to raise this substantial amount of money and it will depend on whether the Lottery is prepared to give it a very high level of support."

To quote the Trust, a charity run by volunteers: "For the past 40 years it has acted as an ark for the collective folk memory of the people of Biggar and the Upper Ward."

But now it is at a crossroads. The buildings, which were never designed as museums, are not visible to those passing through Biggar.

They are out of date, visitor numbers are falling and renovation to bring the buildings up to modern standards for display and access would be too expensive.

Then Stephens Garage came up for sale. The starting price was 300,000 but Trustees persuaded a small group of individuals, led by Captain David Barnes, to buy the building, effectively on behalf of the Trust.

The Trust was then given a 12-month option, which runs until September next year, to buy it from them at the price they have paid.

With the costs of the sale, that is now 380,000.

To find out how you can help with this project, pick up a copy of this week's Carluke and Lanark Gazette which is in the shops now.