The community trust reported on Friday that its bid for the 4,000-acre estate surrounding the village had been accepted, four hours before the closing deadline.
The final £800,000 was assembled from a bridging facility, a loan against the hall, and 4,100 individual donations from 31 countries. The largest single donation was £40,000. The most common was £10.
There was, by several accounts, a certain amount of noise in the hall on Friday evening.
Saturday morning
The trust now owns eleven let houses, a hill, a burn, three derelict steadings and the only site in the village with planning consent for affordable housing.
It also owns eleven tenancy agreements, a private water supply serving four properties, an insurance liability, a fencing obligation, an unrepaired bridge and a deer management responsibility it is legally required to discharge.
The trust has four directors, all volunteers, none of whom has previously been a landlord.
“Everyone keeps saying congratulations, and they are right, and I am glad. But on Monday somebody has to answer a phone about a boiler, and that somebody is going to be me.”
Chair of the community trust
What happens to the eleven
All existing tenancies continue on their current terms. The trust has written to each household confirming this, which several tenants said was the first written assurance about their housing they had received in nine years.
Rents will be reviewed against local earnings rather than market comparators, using the model adopted by two other trusts.
The unglamorous phase
Comparable buyouts suggest the difficult period is years two to five, when the fundraising energy has gone and the work is insurance renewals, drainage and committee minutes.
Of the four directors, two have said they intend to stand down within eighteen months and want replacements found and trained before they do. Nobody has yet come forward, which is the ordinary position everywhere.
The estate office opened on Monday at nine. The kettle is the one from the hall.
