Abandoned Dumbarton community hub being restored by local

Ross Dickson, 36, went to the Crosslet Centre in Silverton as a child after he couldn't get a nursery space.

He fondly remembers feeling at home in the centre that was also used as a disability group for his granny and a line dancing class for his late nana.

After seeing the centre in disrepair in August last year, whilst on the hunt for a new location for his dance school, Ross and his partner decided to take on the challenge of restoring the property after the previous owner returned the building keys back to the council.

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He said: "We had seen the building empty whilst on the search for new premises for the dance school that I run.

"We thought 'what's going on in there?’

"It had been empty for years. So we just inquired about it and the next thing you know someone had handed back the keys and that was it.

"When we took on the place, it was a shambles, it had been left to rot for four or five years and most stuff was ruined."

Ross has embarked on the large-scale project having already completed phase one to create a space for his dance school 'Ready to Learn', and his focus has now shifted to the rest of the building.

Renovations included reflooring many of the rooms (Image: Supplied) During his renovations which included reflooring, jet washing, painting and cleaning, Ross also made discoveries about the history of the centre.

He managed to uncover photographs of his grandparents as well as unearthing blankets from the former knitting group that Ross was able to donate to a nearby maternity unit.

His most recent discovery came from a storage cupboard which has drawings of poppies on its walls which led him to find out the centre used to be used as a bunker.

Ross made some discoveries amongst some old items (Image: Supplied) He said: "It was an old bunker, but we didn't find that out until we got into the storeroom and there were poppies painted behind some of the cupboards. We're still digging into that because that's quite a recent development."

Ross plans to have no limit as having heard the discovery and spoken to local veterans he wants to include them in his plans.

He added: "There's a row of houses behind us that are veteran houses and we spoke to one of them, he said 'there's nowhere for us to meet.'

"We'd love to be able to offer just an evening, maybe once a month or every couple of weeks where these men and women can come in and have somewhere to talk about their memories."

His plans for 'phase two' will focus on creating a cafe for residents to meet up and socialise.

Having added fibre optics and applied for a food business license, he is reaching out to the community to get involved.

Yet Ross is not alone as family and friends have come out in full force to support the restoration including his partner Mark Campbell who has lived in Silverton for most of his life.

Ross and Mark took on the challenge together (Image: Supplied) Ross added: "There has been a team of 20 of my friends and family. I would go into one room to see three people were painting and two people were in demoulding. It was a real community effort.

"We want to do everything here. We want to use the gardens for some sort of community gardens and bring back all the old clubs.

"We want to allow for any sort of community-based events and get people through the door and build up this sense of togetherness.

"We want to hear from people. We want to hear what people would like and if people have ideas for community-led projects, events or weekly clubs we want it."

Ross and Mark are setting their sights on opening the 'Crosslet' in September but say it hangs on continuing to make steady progress.