The King’s Barn – home of Peebles Baptist Church

The story so far…

For 30 years, Peebles Baptist Church has been without a physical home. A church is more than just a building, and that hasn’t stopped us meeting together to worship in halls around the town.

Now, however, we believe that God is calling us to  build. We have an exciting vision for what God wants to do with us as a church – being Good News on the South side of Peebles, with a new church and community building (“The King’s Barn”) on our land at the King’s Meadow, alongside our existing community garden.

Artist's impression

After a significant amount of prayer, thinking, research, consultation and planning, construction is now underway! Timescales will depend on how quickly we can raise the funds to complete the different stages, but the foundations are already in place.

What’s the Vision?

  • The King’s Barn will be a home for Peebles Baptist Church, and a place of worship, fellowship and community for a rapidly expanding population in Peebles.
  • The King’s Meadow Community Garden allows people of all ages to work together to grow produce, to meet, to share and to create abundance from nothing.
  • The King’s Meadow project supports the use and development of Victoria Park for regular park users and for the whole community.
  • The King’s Barn aims to be an open, welcoming venue with low cost rooms for community groups, social enterprises, and other organisations.

Sustainability and Creation Care

Creation Care

Looking after the earth’s resources is vital, and the Christian church in particular has a responsibility placed upon it by God to take care of His creation.

The King’s Meadow site – not just the new building, but the garden as well – is designed with sustainability and care for the environment very much in mind.

The building will be powered by Solar energy, and will be heated by air source or ground source heat pumps. Income from the Government’s Renewable Heat Incentives and Feed-in-tariffs will offset the running costs of the building. We are also looking at options for rainwater harvesting and water-reuse.

Although parking is available under the building, walking and cycling to the King’s Barn is actively encouraged.

We aim to work to organic principles in the garden, as well as composting and recycling – even the land is  recycled, having once been a rubbish tip! Most of the timber and slabs have been donated and upcycled, as were the raised beds. We’ve got a long list of builders and other people that we’re really grateful to for donations of both new and used materials!

A Barn on Stilts?

Steel Framed Building

We have been working with our architect (Ranald Boydell, from Galashiels) to come up with a design for a building that is long-lasting and fit for purpose, but that is also more cost-effective and quick to build than traditional brick or stone buildings.

The structure we’re working with is a metal-framed commercial building (put simply, a barn!), which can be fitted out suitably inside, and clad to blend in with the environment externally.

Because of the latest flood survey calculations, SBC will require that the building is raised significantly from the lowest level on our land. We’re doing this by using “stilts”, and we’re going to be putting the space underneath to good use for car and bicycle parking, as well as a garden store and publicly accessible toilet.

Flexibility is a key requirement, and this type of building has the further advantage that it is relatively easy to change the internal layout depending on future needs. Our plan is to build the outer shell, and then fit out the inside of the building as funds permit.

How can you help?

If you want to invest in the vision that we have to be Good News on the South side of Peebles, we would love to hear from you. We would be grateful for your time, expertise, skills, or financial gifts, but most of all your prayers. If you want to find out more, please get in touch.