Michaelswood is a community woodland in Aith, Shetland. This stunning spot is packed full of amenities – there’s walks, trails, play tables for bairns, a pond, bird hides, a reading area and interpretation. Bairns can meet Kevin the Minion, dinosaurs, carved nursery rhyme characters and they can have fun in the play area. Michaelswood also has a Polycrub.
The Polycrub was originally built with the aim of providing a sheltered space. Picnic benches were added so that folk could take shelter and enjoy their picnics on poorer days, but the Polycrub has become so much more than that. Michaelswood adapts to whatever people demand from it.
Ray Ferrie and his family, wife Betty and son, Alan, created Michaelswood and Ray is often described as the ‘Crazy-ideas-man’! He came up with the idea of building a Polycrub, ‘I wanted a structure for outdoors where people could be indoors but feel like they were still outdoors. Try drinking a cup of tea in the teeth of a Shetland gale! You'll be glad you’re are having it inside a Polycrub instead. It is very popular for that purpose’.
Visitors generally decide what the Polycrub’s use will be next and Ray, Betty and Alan are often amazed at the ideas. Ray said, ‘We get many requests to have bairn’s birthday parties in it and toddler groups and nurseries come and have special activities in the Polycrub. The Church had a wonderful Songs of Praise service in it and you could hear the singing at the very top of the woodland. The Peter Wood band came one evening for a music night and we served tea and tab-nabs. I’m sure it wasn’t an intended design feature of the Polycrub, but the acoustics inside for music are absolutely superb. The Classic Car Club come every year now for an annual club barbeque and the more groups who come to use it, the more want to come. Someday I may have to put up a second one!’
Much of the year, the community woodland has a weekly visit from young people at the Bridges project, who come to volunteer for work. Ray and the team help to teach new skills, build up self-confidence and provide building blocks to equip the volunteers for life in the workplace. Ray said, ‘The highlight of their visit always the picnic that Betty prepares and which we have in the Polycrub! So, the Polycrub is very much helping young people to grow and develop. It’s a fantastic environment, no one will ever know its true value’.
Ray and his team chose a Polycrub because they felt the structure was economical to buy and erect, strong and proven to be able to stand up to Shetland weather. Ray said, ‘They are already a proven design. Inside they are very adaptable, and they require no heating even in a cool climate like Shetland. They are ideal for our purpose’. The robust sheeting is also safe – it cannot shatter like glass.
Ray wanted a building that was safe and relatively easy to maintain. He said, ‘I have a standard greenhouse, but I have spent a lot of manhours replacing glass panes after storms, and I didn't want another greenhouse with all it's repairs and maintenance. Our Polycrub has already endured many very notable storms and I have inspected during high winds and it has not even budged or trembled an inch. I have sat in it during a severe storm and I is like sitting outside in a fine day. A remarkable engineering achievement. The designer is a genius!’
Ray thinks back on the best night in the Polycrub so far, ‘My favourite night was perhaps the night the Peter Wood band came to play……..sheer magic. Accordion music bouncing off curved walls. Who could ever have thought of designing such a theatre’.
