Member Article

Teachers Visit School Being Transformed Into £8million Development

A group of teachers, teaching assistants, dinner ladies and maintenance staff have returned to a school where they all used to work in Upper Wortley, to see how the grade II listed building is being transformed into a stunning new homes development and visit the scheme’s newly opened sales centre.

Greenhill Fold is an £8 million village development that will consist of 49 striking family houses. The former staff members from Upper Wortley School, who all now work across the road at the highly acclaimed Five Lanes Primary School, were keen to see how the building and its surroundings are being brought back to life.

The development, by Leeds based developers Rushbond Group and Advent Developments, will see the existing school building transformed into 13, two and three bedroom loft style houses that maximise all the building’s original character, with 36 contemporary new homes built within the school’s grounds.

Jo Fiddes, head teacher at Five Lanes Primary School, says: “Greenhill Fold is a development of quality family homes that’s right on our doorstep so this was a great opportunity to find out about the work that’s going on there. Everyone knows pupils from the former school and approximately 30 members of our team previously worked there, so they were really interested to see how its future is being safeguarded through this development.”

Trish Bushell, was a third generation pupil at Upper Wortley School and now works as a teaching assistant at Five Lanes Primary School. She says: “My mother and grandmother also went to Upper Wortley School so it’s an important part of my family’s history and it’s a similar story for lots of other local people. It was always a great school and I have lots of happy memories from my time there, from big summer fetes through to Christmas parties. After seeing it standing empty in recent years, it’s a huge relief to see it being brought back to life and I am sure it will soon become an integral part of the local community again.”

Tim Reeve from Advent Developments says: “We were delighted to welcome so many people with connections to the school to the development and show them how we’re sympathetically restoring the former school and maintaining all the character and heritage that make it such a special place. Since starting work we’ve been approached by huge numbers of people that attended the school and have happy memories from their time there, which demonstrates what a strong and thriving community Upper Wortley is home to.

“As a result we’re already taking reservations for the homes and our sales centre is immediately proving popular with potential buyers who want to find out about the stylish, design-led homes that we have on offer, that are all ideally suited to family life.”

Advent is highly-regarded in the local area, having successfully converted Lower Wortley Primary School into apartments and mews houses in 2008. In 2014 both Advent and Rushbond completed a 38 home scheme in York that included the conversion of a former Victorian school with new homes built in the grounds creating a unique new part of the community in York, which won the coveted Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors best residential development award. The sales centre at Greenhill Fold is now open from 11am until 5pm Thursday to Monday.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Steven Wright .