For a number of years CAST has been searching for a building which can serve not only as our office but that will also be big enough to house our ongoing projects like the Thursday Lunch Club and all our future ideas, like the cook and eat cookery courses. We have looked at a number of buildings in Bacup but they have either been unsuitable or we have lost out to businesses who can move quicker than us with ready finances. We first looked at the old Nat West Bank when it was first sold at auction. We had promising conversations with the owner at the time about leasing the ground floor for our office and ‘community zone’ but he didn’t do anything with the building and put it back in the auction. We thought that was it but the current owner of the building is using the same architects to plan uses for the building and the architect told him about CAST. So now, not only have we had promising conversations with the current owner but the Architectural Heritage Fund (AHF) gave us funding to carry out a feasibility study on the ground floor of the old Nat West Bank to find out if it will suit our purposes and how much it will cost to turn it into our Community Action Zone (CAZ) where we can have our office and run our projects. Currently the ground floor is an empty, dusty shell with a beautiful dome in the ceiling.

Working with Equilibrium Architects we have looked at how best to utilise the space for our needs.

After laying planks of wood around the floor, sketches in little books, many conversations and coffees, Equilibrium have produced drawings of how we can transform the space with advice from Booth-King Structural Engineers.

Proposed Plans

From these drawings Appleyard & Trew Quantity Surveyors have produced costings for the work we wish to undertake and now the hard work begins of assessing those costings, looking at where we can save money and most importantly speaking to funders and lenders to see if we can realistically raise enough money to turn the Old Nat West Bank onto a Community Action Zone.

Artist’s Impression

The owner of the bank is doing a lot of work on the building and we will be looking into next year before the bank is completely transformed, assuming we can raise the necessary funding.

In the meantime some of our projects will run in the AB&D Centre, Burnley Road, Bacup.