Sea Captain's House and Calender Works

This was the first project undertaken by the then named Dundee Building Preservation Trust.

In May 1990, Bett Bros PLC approached Dundee City Council to enquire about the Demolition of a number of buildings from a site close to the city centre to form a small car park. None of the buildings were listed and the site was not within a conservation area. Subsequent inspection revealed that the site was occupied by a somewhat ill-proportioned 2 storey villa which had been roughly harled in cement. To the rear was a three storey rubble built industrial building.

There had been extensive water penetration in both buildings and as a result wet and dry rot were in evidence. Within the industrial building massive timber beams and columns were found to be unaffected.These timbers hinted at an important industrial survivor within the city and a water powered hydraulic lift linked the ground and first floors.

Betts continued to indicate a preference for demolition and so, largely on the basis of the visual evidence of the quality of timber and the fact that the buildings were both structurally sound, the local planning authority served a building preservation notice, which Historic Scotland subsequently confirmed listing both buildings category B.

A Desk top survey revealed that the villa dated from the 1770's and had been one of a pair. There was reference to the owner being a 'maritime gentleman'. William Shaw started the Dundee Calendering Company in 1822 and it is probable that the timber framed building dates from around that time. It has since been known as the "Calender Works" although its use was probably warehousing with some manufacturing on the top floor. Other buildings followed and the villa became swallowed up and used as the Calender works offices. Removal of the cement render revealed rubble stonework, with extremely fine joints, galleted in places, which suggested a lime wash or render. A decision was made to restore original features where clear evidence existed.

The Trust had continued to negotiate a purchase price with Betts who had initially suggested a figure of £40,000. The Company became more interested and enthusiastic over the Trust's findings and having reduced their asking price to £15,000 eventually agreed to a figure of £1 - 50p per building! This agreement was later classed as a £40,000 donation by Betts towards the project.

The total cost of restoration was £430,000. Financial assistance was obtained from Historic Scotland, The Architectural Heritage Fund (loan), Scottish Enterprise, Dundee District Council, The Pilgrim Trust, The Manifold Trust, The TSB Foundation and The Sinclair Henderson Trust.

Late in the contract The Trust was approached by a Captain Rattray whose forebear, also Captain Rattray, had been the original Sea Captain. The captain had, had three ships engaged in the Baltic timber trade.

At the time work started there was no end user. However, the work quickly attracted attention and early in 1995 an agreement was reached with the St Aidan's Project in which they would take the building on completion to be used as a training centre for adults with learning difficulties. The accommodation these buildings offered, where the villa would provide offices and the calender works training space, was ideal for their needs. Match funding for the amount raised by The Trust was then obtained from Europe for fitting out to St Aidan's requirements. Contained within the European funding was a sum of £200,000 to enable St Aidan's to purchase the buildings from The Trust, which was also the sum The Trust required to repay their loan to The Architectural Heritage Fund.

During all of this the water powered lift emerged as a real problem. While a number of people wanted to remove it The Trust was determined it should be restored. Heritage Engineering of New Lanark agreed to examine the lift and estimated that a further sum of approximately £25,000 would be required to restore it to working order. Grants of £54,000, some of which was earmarked for landscaping work, from The Heritage Lottery Fund and £16,000 from Historic Scotland allowed for the repair of the lift, protective screening and interpretive material.

Work was completed in June 1996 at a total cost in excess of £900,000. St Aidan's who obtained an ideal property in a perfect location and at a fraction of its true value, in honour of the Sea Captain, changed their name to "Helm". On completion of the project The Dundee Building Preservation Trust decided it needed to widen its area of remit and changed its name to The Tayside Building Preservation Trust.