A Home for Shakespeare at Traquair

Since 2002, the Shakespeare at Traquair group has had use of the large barn area of the mid eighteenth century Old Coach House at Traquair Estate. We store all the costumes, material, props, scenery, and lighting in the barn.

The roof was very, very sick with rotting timbers and was letting in water. The Traquair House Trust and Shakespeare at Traquair acting together financed a new roof. This includes separate accommodation for the bats, enabling us to live in harmony with these fascinating creatures.

Our appeal raised another £1500, which has enabled us put in proper and safe power and lights, create a separate area for Traquair House’s things and create a much cleaner space for us to store our costumes and props and to prepare for future shows.

Thank you to everyone who contributed!!!

The entire barn area was cleared in order to address the damp issues (and the bat poo!!) and is in the process of being re-furbished. For the large internal area of the barn, we need to finance plumbing, electrics, lighting, flooring, storage units, the creation of an office area, possibly with computer facilities, a sewing area and workshop space. We also need funds for dry-cleaning of costumes that have suffered from the leaking roof and from bat damage and for holding items in a temporary storage facility until renovation is complete. We also hope to produce and maintain a digital photographic catalogue of our costumes and props.

By the end of May 2016, the roof was finished, bat boxes installed and we even now have a ceiling and proper lighting! We have now moved back in and are continuing to develop the interior.

“Pebbles make a Mountain, Raindrops make a Sea”

The Old Coach House, Traquair Estate

Before the renovation could start, we had to empty the barn.  Several weekends were spent going through our costumes, props and set and deciding what to keep and what to throw away (recycled of course).