Open day before St Ives vicarage turned into flats

The redevelopment project will see the creation of six affordable flats

The public is being invited to view a historic building before a major refurbishment gets under way.

The St Ives Community Land Trust is turning the town's former vicarage, which has been unused since 2016, into six affordable flats and has arranged the open day to enable local people to find out more about the project.

Jill Block, project lead for the non-profit organisation, said: "We are now ready to start work on renovating and converting the building and are delighted to have the opportunity to stage an open day."

The Old Vicarage Flats in St Ives will be open to the public between 10:00 and 14:00 GMT on Saturday.

The planned work will see the historic building in the centre of town converted to provide two one-bedroom and four two-bedroom affordable flats for rent to local people.

It comes after the project was awarded £750,000 from St Ives Town Deal Fund. It is due to be the first community-led housing project to be delivered in the town centre.

Ms Block added: "Whilst local people may not have seen major changes to the exterior of the building over the past few months, we have been working very hard behind the scenes to appoint a contractor and prepare for the start of the main refurbishment works."

Known originally as the Parsonage and built in the late 1830s, the building was home to the vicars of St Ives until the early 1950s.

The building was then taken over by St Ives Borough Council which converted the upper stories into four flats while the ground floor was owned by Cornwall County Council and used by a number of local organisations.

In 2019, the trust used funds raised by the community to buy the Old Vicarage, which had been empty since 2016.