Builders' new purpose for fire station

Sleaford's historic old fire station is to get a new lease of life - as the headquarters for a firm of local builders.
Simon Atkinson and Jason Dixon of HPC Homes, outside their new office in Sleaford - the old fire station. EMN-181203-172708001Simon Atkinson and Jason Dixon of HPC Homes, outside their new office in Sleaford - the old fire station. EMN-181203-172708001
Simon Atkinson and Jason Dixon of HPC Homes, outside their new office in Sleaford - the old fire station. EMN-181203-172708001

HPC Homes has been based in Bourne since starting up in 2001 as a partnership between Simon Atkinson and Jason Dixon.

But with Simon now living in Scopwick and Jason in Caythorpe, they were keen to finally find a base closer to home and jumped at the chance when the fascinating old fire station building on Watergate came up for sale as accountancy firm Dexter and Sharpe were moving out.

The partners are hoping to have their new home open for business by March 26 after calling in their contractors to carry out extensive refurbishments inside, while retaining its historic character.

An old image of the fire and and its crew hung on the wall of the building company's new office premises. EMN-181203-172644001An old image of the fire and and its crew hung on the wall of the building company's new office premises. EMN-181203-172644001
An old image of the fire and and its crew hung on the wall of the building company's new office premises. EMN-181203-172644001

The building originally belonged to the Urban District Council and the upstairs once served as a library.

Jason said: “We are repainting the windows a nice colour. It is full of archways and is so lovely you need to see them, so we are taking out a couple of partition walls and putting glazed screens in to let the sunlight shine through from back to front.

“Everything is built properly so everything is three times as thick.”

The empty bell tower is being cleaned out too and tidied up having only been used for storage.

Looking up into the old fire station bell tower. EMN-181203-172729001Looking up into the old fire station bell tower. EMN-181203-172729001
Looking up into the old fire station bell tower. EMN-181203-172729001

The upstairs rooms are more than the business needs and may be rented out later.

They have been left a couple of old photos of the town fire brigade with their horse drawn appliance outside which will be displayed prominently.

Jason said: “We have been travelling to Bourne for the last 10 years and we felt it was time to be nearer home. Our children go to school here too.”

He added: “We have built over 400 homes in various locations around the county. We also build commercial units, do property development and contracting.

An old image of the fire and and its crew hung on the wall of the building company's new office premises. EMN-181203-172644001An old image of the fire and and its crew hung on the wall of the building company's new office premises. EMN-181203-172644001
An old image of the fire and and its crew hung on the wall of the building company's new office premises. EMN-181203-172644001

“We had built up a bit of a land bank and when the housing market picked up the other year we built some executive homes.”

The firm has about six employees and up to 40 sub-contractors on its books.

They may consider building more properties in the Sleaford area having previously concentrated on the south of the county, but they also have a warehouse extension in London currently ongoing.

“We have bids on bits of land in local villages at the moment which we hope will come off and are currently completing 26 homes on site in Boston,” Jason said.