Our project to renovate the former Bank of Scotland office in Grantown-on-Spey is going well and we want to share a wee update on progress. One of the questions we keep getting asked is ‘did you find any money?’ We’ll give you the answer below.

Painting time

There’s been a lot of painting – it takes a few coats to cover up Bank of Scotland blue! But furniture has been moved in and some shelves have been going up as we get the place ready for business.

We used the bank regularly for many years as customers so it’s been fascinating to step beyond the public spaces and see what’s there. One of the most surprising features was a massive metal wall beside the business counter. Needless to say, that isn’t going anywhere and we’re planning how to make it a feature of the new space.

What’s left behind

Stickers telling people where to stand for social distancing are still on the floor in the front and you can see where the cashier’s desk stood from the marks on the carpet.

Another surprise was a mosaic floor at the fire exit. This is the door that leads onto High Street. We think it will look lovely when it’s given a proper clean.

Most of the features were stripped out – handles were even taken off the door into the back room but it’s spy hole remains.

Behind this door, we found a huge metal box; presumably for the bank’s servers. A spaghetti junction of wires emerged from this box and ran off into the ceiling and away through the building.

New start

The work so far has concentrated on getting to a point where Angus Grant Art can move out of the unit at the local industrial estate and continue making products for shops and craft fairs.

We’re looking forward to getting things in order work and maybe even run a small pottery class in the next few months. Watch this space!

And the answer to how much money did we find? Well, it was 30p worth of 5ps, a bank card and some bank bags! Perhaps the millions are still to be found?!