Rainbow Cafe on the Move!
Well the wait is almost over! If all goes according to plan in the next few days, the ALRS will be able to start dismantling the ‘Where the Rainbow Ends’ café in Clay Cross on October 19. Therefore the Society will be holding its very first working weekend over 19-21 October, which will (hopefully) see the cafe taken down and put into secure storage while work on the planning applications for its future use are completed.
The rescue of the Rainbow Cafe is a huge milestone for the ALRS, especially since the Society is only just over a year old. In late July the ALRS was given the blessing of Ashover Parish Council, and the support of the building’s current owners, Maximus, to move the building from its current residence at Clay Cross, back to its original site at Ashover Butts. Here it will eventually be restored to use as a café for villagers and visitors to enjoy.
The restored building will be a key asset to the Society; providing a useful source of revenue, and an interpretation point for the railway.
The cost of dismantling, moving, renovating and refitting the café has been estimated in the region of £100,000, although the building’s basic wooden fabric and simple construction mean that the costs could be lower. The Society is looking at various sources of grant aid to fund this.
Full details are available on the Appeal page, including some incentives for various stages of amounts of financial support.
***UPDATE***
We have not been able to get access to the cafe this week to get the preparation work needed done, as the contractors have been disconnecting mains supplies.
The work will now take place this coming week. Therefore we are now looking at the weekend of the 26th-29th October for dismantling.
Tags: Ashover Parish Council, Clay Cross, Rainbow Ends Cafe, Where the Rainbow Ends