History of 1-7 Bridge Street Revealed

23rd June 2021

Work is progressing on the repair and restoration of 1-7 Bridge Street , know as the Pen-y-Coe Press. The work is starting to reveal the history of the building . Taking the render off on 5-7 Bridge Street has exposed the sandstone behind and taking paint off the stone surrounds to the windows has revealed the red sandstone beneath.This has shown that this part of the building is older than no 1 Bridge Street which is brick beneath the render . The window surrounds here are in reddened concrete to look like the window surrounds on 5-7 .

Paint removal from the stone string course above the ground floor has exposed some of the original shopfront sign writing , difficult to make out , “ironmonger, grain …..”. The shop was originally Wilson’s Grain Store. See attached note written by Roger Hipkin from the Penicuik Community Development Trust summarising the history of the building

http://penicuikheritage.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/The-Grain-Store_2-Rogers-history-note.docx