CIRENCESTER’S old railway station could soon be getting a new lease of life as a cultural centre.

Cotswold District Council leaders are considering their options to renovate and reuse the Old Station and Memorial Cottages in Sheep Street.

Their preferred option is to try and bring in external funding and renovate them for community or cultural use.

They would need more than £564,000 of external funding for the Old Station and around £490,000 for the Memorial Cottages. If they cannot achieve this, the council could decide to sell the properties.

Cabinet agreed on December 5 to ask officers to investigate further to see if it would be viable to bring the buildings back into use for community groups such as New Brewery Arts.

Corporate services cabinet member Lisa Spivey (LD, The Ampneys and Hampton) said the council would like to upgrade the cottages and bring them into the 21st Century by sensitively restoring them.

“We also want to bring back to life the old station building itself. It has stood vacant for a long time and it’s in a state of quite serious disrepair internally,” she told the cabinet meeting.

“We would all agree that bringing our lovely historic buildings back into use is a priority for this council.”

Health and wellbeing cabinet member Jenny Forde (LD, Chedworth and Churn Valley) said that it was “heartbreaking” to have such an iconic building empty for a long time.

She said: “I was looking through some old photographs at home the other day and I found one of my father on the platform when it was still a train station and he used to come here to visit his grandfather for holidays.”

Cllr Forde it would be fantastic if the council could bring the building back into use and turn it into a vibrant community facility.

The Old Station, which was built in 1841 and designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, is a grade II listed building. It closed to passengers on April 6, 1964.