Griff Rhys Jones visited the Purifier on Friday afternoon as part of his Kent tour for Civic Voice [see previous post], looking at local projects and meeting volunteers; He spent the morning at the Faversham Society and then came down to the Purifier. He was shown the progress on renovating the building, and introduced to the first business to take space there – the Blockmaker Colin Frake, and shown the plans for using the yacht Mayhi as the basis for the Apprentice scheme.
Later, he gave an invigorating speech in his inimitable style which was well received. He was obviously familiar with all the problems encountered by organisations attempting to restore and preserve with too few funds and overcoming the hurdles of development and planning. Gryff then circulated and met members and volunteers from the Trust.