St Mary’s School and Nunnery
Application submitted from The Diocese of Leeds to demolish a 19th century school and nunnery:
http://www2.kirklees.gov.uk/business/planning/application_search/detail.aspx?id=2014%2f91709
This building is in a conservation area and forms part of the industrial fabric of this corner of Batley. Even the heritage consultant, who noramally dispell any idea of historic merit acknowledge that this would be a huge loss.
No plans to build on the site, so I can only assume that scorched earth is more marketble. So many public buildings are being sold off for housing land, and ironically when a dearth of school places exists; a situation which will only worsen. Still they get rid of these functional buildings. Kirklees, you will rue the day.
Fulford Hall to be demolished
Fulford Hall is set to be demolished. This building once housed Penistone Grammer School, which has now moved to a modern complex down the road. This follows the demolition of Broomhead Hall in Penistone in 1976:
Palatial in appearance, it is quite strange that a developer can not see any reuse of this building, other than a carte blanche brownfield site. So often we rue how throughout the 20th century, stately homes were demolished with an ideological zeal, yet here we are, readily allowing an architectural marvel to be lost for the sake of a few detached houses and their accompanying commuters.
Justification through extolling that ‘no use can be found for the building’ does not wash with me. Barnsley council, you have now set a president and nothing is safe from the wandering eyes of the speculator.
Shame on you.
And by the way, Penistone Grammer school has I’m sure lost a lot of prestige by moving from Fulford Hall to a (purposefully?) rusting aluminium warehouse.
For list of stately homes demolished in the 20th century, see http://lh.matthewbeckett.com/lh_complete_list.html
We’re too late to save this masterpiece now, yet this is only the first of many, and its time to up the ante. This could have been 30 or more innovative residences, but we are going to get a handful of generic suburban boxes.
