Oakbank School, Keighley
Another old school building to be demolished in Ingrow, Keighley:
The school itself was constructed in 1963, however in the core of this asbestos/plywood complex is an impressive Manor House known as Haggas Hall.
This image taken in 1963 (thanks to David Kirkley of Keighley Schools Heritage) shows the building in all its manorial glory. Sadly not spectacular enough for Bradford Council to consider intervention, this is yet another historic building to be lost during the current wave of school rebuilding.
Of course it is fantastic that funding is going into building new education facilities for our young people, but there does seem to be a culture of scorched earth redevelopment, rather than the existing sites being analysed as the composites of buildings they are.
Its somewhat lazy, and the new school will lose some capital derived from having a historic ‘core’ building as a centre piece. By all means get rid of the prefabricated periphery, but retain the sturdy stone nucleus.
Hilltop Works, Chapeltown, Leeds
Another grand old Mill building near Leeds is to be razed for housing:
Here is an aerial view of the existing site. I can not find any close up images of the buildings sadly.
Not the most inspiring Victorian building, but impressive nonetheless. As ever it is a shame the developer can’t see the value in conversion to domestic rather than erecting a suburban utopia. A lot of the site would need to be thinned out granted, but if the main edifice of the mill building could be retained, then another fragment of our unique industrial landscape would remain in place.
I am also quite sure that this building is situated in a conversation area – specifically a conservation area predicated on industrial heritage.As ever such designations are entirely meaningless when pit against the planning concepts of brown field land and five year housing supplies.
The Demolition Register 