D6130
Established Member
I have just read that the historic station building at Stow, on the recently-reopened Borders Line, has been saved from planned demolition to make way for extra parking spaces. Now Network Rail and the local community trust would like it to become a micro-bar and/or cafe and/or bike hub - in a rather pretty conservation village which has no pub - in the hope that it will attract rail-borne visitors to the area. A tenant for the property is urgently being sought - if necessary for a 'pop-up' establishment to take advantage of what's left of the Summer. While this is, on the face of it, good news from both a railway and a community perspective; what do members think about the year-round viability of such a project - bearing in mind that Stow is a small village of just over 700 souls and situated in a very sparsely-populated area? The one and only pub in the village closed some years ago and is now a tea shop and gallery. Incidentally, the name of the village is pronounced to rhyme with 'how' and not like Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire.