A gift for the neighbours.

ON THURSDAY WE HELD A SMALL GET-TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST 30 CRUSADER RESIDENTS. IT WAS AN INVITE BACK TO THE BUILDING FOR SOME DRINKS, HEARTY FOOD AND A GENERAL CATCH-UP TO CHAT ABOUT ALL THINGS CRUSADER! IT WAS A BIT OF A BELTER TOO, AS WE ALL ENDED UP STAYING LATE, AND IT GENUINELY STARTED TO FEEL LIKE THE COMMUNITY HAD ALREADY BEGUN.

Another exciting update is the fact that one of our own team is actually one of the owner-occupiers! Our own Joe loved the scheme so much that he and his girlfriend called dibs on an apartment too.

But there was another reason we had thrown the party. We'd prepared a special gift for all of the future residents...

We had previously taken a walk round the building with local designer and furniture maker Jon Male, looking for something special, and stumbled upon some old, rusted-up keys. These had been left forgotten after many years, so we wanted to repurpose them and give them new life, much like the building itself. Surprisingly, we found 30 keys, the perfect amount for our first 30 residents.

Jon took these away and crafted them into something new, a limited edition set of 30 beautiful key fobs as a reminder that, although the mill won’t be ready for 2 years, here was a little piece of the 172 year old Crusader Mill for the residents to take away for now.

It was our way of saying thanks for queueing up from 6am, thanks for standing in the rain with smiles on your faces and thanks for loving Crusader just as much as we do!