The Guard House Project

Project Supervisor: Jonathan Barrow

Finance Director: Deborah Barrow

H&S Site Person in Charge: George Barrow

Photographer: Darren Lindsay

All Exterior work completed by:
Jonathan Barrow
George Barrow
Darren Lindsay
Rhys Lyons

Porchway built by: A.S Neale Construction

Electrics: SCL whole building certificated

Commercial Flooring: Steve Jacobs

Prepared by: Jonathan Barrow BSc, ACMI, Chairman of Sociability

Almost 2 years of our lives went into this project. We never planned for it to take that long. However, none of us planned for a pandemic to hit the world. We had a great deal of support pledged before we began. Jon and Deb went out to meet so many well meaning organisations and companies. Unfortunately, this support diminished almost overnight. However, for very good reason, organisations had their own issues to contend with.

Quotes for the work went over 250k and we were no where near this amount of money. Thus, we decided to do the work ourselves. Our family have always been able to turn our hands to anything really, so it made sense. However, we still needed some absolutely essential support, or this was never going to happen. Therefore, we have to add a very special thank you to certain people. Jon and Deb had a few sleepless nights wishing for some grant bids to come good for us, it's a dreadful feeling waiting, followed by an amazing emotion when you receive enough money to keep the project on track. It makes us reflect now, if the people who provide funding truly know just how thankful people are for it, and just how much good this money/support goes on to do for people in desperate need.

What this means for Sociability…we chose to become a registered charity over a community interest company for specific reasons. Now-a-days it's easy to set up a company with a community interest, far harder to register as a charity. However, we contemplated the choice, and with no disrespect to other well meaning organisations, we wanted to be a registered charity, with all funding going towards helping support people in mental health distress, lonely or unhappy with life. The vital element to our need to be a charity is that what is being formed here by way of this support cannot be undone, even when we are no longer here. Sociability has it's foundations established to provide help and support to people for many years to come, it's our legacy...