Inside Tim Stead's house: Race against time to save renowned sculptor's unique Borders home

  • Video report by Clare McNeil

An appeal has been launched to save a renowned sculptor's unique Borders home and its contents from going up for public sale, and potentially being lost. 

Works by artist, poet and furniture maker Tim Stead include Café Gandolfi in Glasgow and the Millennium Clock.

But his family home near Lauder is widely regarded as his single most important work, with the interior almost entirely sculpted from wood. A trust in his name have until February to raise the hundreds of thousands of pounds needed to buy it.

Sandy Hellowell, from the Tim Stead Trust, said: "We hoped we would get funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, however that wasn't to be.

"We were very dejected when we found out we didn't get the funding, however we put out some information to our friends and patrons and within 24 hours we had received £320,000 of donations. Of course there's a long way to go still we need to raise £130,000 just to be able to buy the steading.

Tim Stead MBE was a sculptor and furniture maker who worked primarily in wood. Credit: Tim Stead Trust

Over a period of two decades Tim Stead added more and more elements to create his unusual home. Since is death 10 years ago it's been in the care of his wife, Maggie - but she can no longer afford the upkeep.

Any buyer would have to apply for permission to make any structural changes to the category a listed building - but the furniture would most likely be sold off.

The trust want to preserve the steading for future generations, so they can learn of the important environmental work he carried out tin the Scottish borders, and keep the neighboring workshop, where Tim's former apprentice still creates pieces in his distinctive style, in operation. 

Sandy said: "In the future what we want to do is to make the most of what has happened in the past, leave a legacy, make sure that an apprentice could learn the skill, which would then be passed on.

"The whole house would be used by the public so they could come. For example, an artist in residence, it could be the local school or college,  and schoolchildren would come as part of their curriculum it would really fit in extremely well."

The trust have until February to secure the remaining funds they need but with private buyers already lining up, they're in a race against time to save it.