Village loses bid to stop historic school demolition

Many Garway residents used to attend the Old School as children

Villagers have lost an appeal to save their historic school from demolition.

The Garway Old School in Herefordshire was built in 1878 and its private owner has been seeking to demolish it.

Permission was granted by Herefordshire Council, however campaigners had the opportunity to make a case for saving it before the Court of Appeal.

They had hoped it could instead be renovated however a high court judge found on Tuesday that the owner was within their rights to demolish it.

Malcolm Howard, who lives in Garway and had campaigned to save the school, said the decision was "a significant loss to the community".

The village "has just a few remnant buildings from its past and to lose this is yet another blow, another nail in the coffin of that historic record, the history of Garway," he said.

In 2022, there was a protest in the village and locals lodged about 100 objections to the demolition plans.

The Garway Old School, built in 1878, once housed 50 children as a boarding school

"It’s a fantastic Victorian building," said Toni Fagin, Herefordshire councillor for Garway.

"The thought of demolishing it is just absolutely contrary to many people’s views of what could happen with this building.

"I cannot believe standing here on the English Welsh border, this absolutely stunning location, with this beautiful, iconic building with Gothic features, that somebody would not want to develop this site in a more sympathetic way."

The BBC has made efforts to contact the owner of the school but has not had a response.

It is not clear what is planned for the future of the site.

Councillor Fagin said relationships between the owner and the community seemed to have "broken down" and that conversations about the future of the site "haven't been very open".

"To demolish it and simply leave a concrete slab just lying bare on the road side and wait for a better idea to come along just doesn’t make much sense at all," she said.