Rescue bid success for Murray Chapel, Lanark

The best news is that, despite the current financial crisis, the near quarter of a million pounds needed to save the town's much-loved Murray Chapel has now been found and work on saving the building in Lanark Cemetery should start in the new year.

It is even possible that the chapel, a gift to the town by a New Lanark businessman, could be opened in a new guise during 2011, its centenary year.

There was also news which might give some heart to those trying to save the old Lanark Grammar School building in Albany Drive, built just a few years before the chapel and lying empty since last year.

It was understood that the building had been sold to Barratt Homes with a view to pulling down the impressive Edwardian edifice.

However, Lanark Community Council secretary Bill Stewart said that he'd been told that Barratt doesn't own it!

Bill was told that the building was still in the process of being transferred to MUSE, a company understood to specialise in the disposal of redundant local authority buildings to private developers.

For more information on this story, pick up a copy of this week's Lanark Gazette which is in the shops now.