Maud Village Trust
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For 99 years the Mart in Maud had hosted one of the largest cattle auctions in Europe and was at the centre of agricultural life for the farming communities of Buchan. Every Wednesday, more than 1,000 cattle and up to 5,000 sheep were sold as farmers from across Scotland flocked to the small Aberdeenshire village.
The Mart closed its gates on March 2001, and as a response to this The Maud Village Trust (a recognized Scottish charity) was formed in 2002 with the aim of purchasing and then developing the “Old Mart Site” in the centre of the village for the benefit of Maud and its surrounding areas.
The development of the site has been done in phases, this was not only because of the volume of work involved and the fact that we operate with volunteers but also because at every step of the way we have had to continually fund raise and apply for funding to achieve our goals.
The First phase of our development of the Old Mart site was in creating a beautiful focal point - a community garden for all to enjoy.
Next the Trust created a Community Service Centre, which provides rentable units for local businesses and is also home to our very own community café -The Old Mart Café.
The final phase of the development came about when the Trust was approached by NHS Grampian to work in partnership with them to provide a unique building, (the first of its kind in Scotland and indeed the UK).
A Community Resource Centre which would be designed to facilitate a multi agency support network to provide a range of services of direct benefit to the health and well-being of our local communities. In short, the building would be a hub where third sector organisations would work in partnership with NHS Grampian & Aberdeenshire Council Health & Social Care teams to improve and maintain health services in the rural communities.
Completed in 2008 the Resource Centre has over the years become a very well utilized health resource and has seen its services on offer grow and develop. Current services running from the building are: Central Buchan Medical Group, Podiatry, Community Nurses, Health Visitors, Occupational Therapists, Care Management teams, Mental Health practitioners, Retinal screening and we also play host to a number of third sector organisations that support the current health and social care partnership. We also run our own community gym out of the Resource Centre with it’s primary aim being to support our community to be fit and healthy. We have developed this ethos further by establishing a health referral scheme where health professionals can refer people with health issues or disabilities into the scheme for a prescribed program of exercise to help them better self-manage their conditions or get back on their feet.
We are very proud of what we have achieved in Maud and even more so in that what we have achieved allows the legacy of the Old Mart to continue!