The old, and until recently disused, Harwich Town rail station was set up as a training centre for the Project at the end of last year, and has since seen 12 learners complete level 1 pre-apprenticeship courses. The building itself has two ends, most simply called the north and south ends. The North end is used as a training centre, but the south end had been used as, from what we can tell, storage for rubbish. The Prince's Trust TEAM were tasked with clearing out the rubbish from the south building, taking back mortar to the brick behind, and getting it to a point where it could be renovated (hopefully later this year).

One of the rooms that needed clearing had been used as a refridgeration room. It had false walls and a false ceiling at door level. All these false walls were filled with polystyrene and glass fibre insulation. It was a lot of work for the team to pull them all down and remove them. While pulling down walls, they actually came across another doorway that was hidden behind, leading to a small storeroom. 

The amount of rubbish from this room alone was enough to fill half a skip. The room is in relatively good condition, which is more than can be said for the the rest of the building. The store room in said section for instance, didn't have a floor across the entire room. 

The other section of the station that the team were clearing was badly damaged by a fire some years ago. This didn't have any effect on the amount of rubbish in there though. After much clearing, the guys and girls where able to erect some scaffolding towers and start to pull away the damaged ceilings and walls. The rooms are all very grand, with 12 foot high ceilings and original window and door frames. After walking through the cleared rooms, you can get a feel for how  a building could be when renovated. 

The team finished this Thursday, with half of them working at the station on the final parts of clearing and skip filling, and the other half helping in the yard with some painting and yard work alongside our volunteers. 

If you're interested in finding out more information on the TEAM project, go to http://www.princes-trust.org.uk/need_help/courses/team.aspx.

It was a very good week all in all for the Project, with plenty being achieved at the station and yard. A BIG thank you to the Prince's Trust, their team of youngsters, all our volunteers and staff.