The Apple Store
A Community Refurbishment Project
Buildings & Development manager Nor Greenhalgh discusses a recent renovation project at Braziers Park, which brought a disused agricultural building back into community use with the help of volunteers.
July 20, 2026
Could you tell us about your role at Braziers, and how this project came about?
I project manage renovation and refurbishments across Braziers' buildings. Alongside the main house, which is a Strawberry Gothic mansion, we have an outstanding collection of vernacular farm buildings, some dating back to the early 1700s. As a small charity, we work hard to care for these buildings and make the best use of the space we have, which often involves doing the work ourselves with the help of volunteers.A large part of my job is supporting and training volunteers in DIY skills such as painting and decorating, so that we can turn derelict or underused buildings into spaces for our growing community and public events.
Former residents Keshia and Joe, alongside our Land & Buildings Working Group and trustees, began discussing how to repair this building and bring it back into use several years ago. Last year, I worked with our Land & Buildings Working Group to recruit specialist volunteers Charlotte and Ceri, a brilliant pair of aspiring self-builders, who came to look after this building for several months while living on site and improving their skills in woodwork, decorating, and the care of historic buildings. They did an incredible job of transforming a damp, empty space into a thriving community hub, all on a modest budget.
How did Braziers go about repairing a building like this with volunteers?
We are fortunate to have a wide network of friends and collaborators who love to come and spend time here and get their hands dirty with building projects. Some skilled residents provided hands-on training, and Jonas Lenberg, a long-time friend of the community, kindly helped us kick-start the project with an intensive weekend of training in how to get the best out of local builders' merchants.Charlotte and Ceri hit the ground running, learning through doing and being ingenious with low-cost and recycled materials. I supported them through weekly meetings to help bounce ideas, plan and troubleshoot jobs, and keep budgets in order, but Charlotte and Ceri were largely self-managing and put real love into the building. For example, they not only carried out repairs but also created artwork, ran community workshops, and even organised a clothes swap in the building, which all helped to reanimate the space and make it somewhere that people wanted to spend time.
I learnt from them how important it is to make space for fun and play in renovation projects, to bring energy into the project and keep drawing people in. The building quickly went from a forgotten corner to the coolest new party spot, which definitely helped us mobilise extra helping hands!
What is the future of the building?
Now that we have saved the building from the imminent threat of weather damage with simple reactive repairs, the next stages will involve consultation with historic building specialists to specify sensitive upgrades. This is a delicate and long-term project, involving extensive consultation with conservation architects and local planners due to the sensitive nature of the estate, where all structures are considered to be within the curtilage of the Grade II* listed main house.We have appointed timber frame expert Hugh Conway-Morris of Made Manifest to explore how we might insulate the building for year-round use. In the meantime, we now have an additional space that is in use as part of our educational offering for workshops, studio space, and music rehearsals. It has already been used as a music studio and movement rehearsal space, and I recently delivered my first workshop in the building – a beginners' carpentry course, which seemed appropriate. It has been a joy to be part of bringing this special building back to life over the past year!
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