Croxley Green History - Yorke Road School Grand Opening

Grand Reopening - Thursday 15th May 2014

A large crowd of local residents and ex pupils came to support the official opening.

Paul O'Reilly thanked the local residents for their support during the restoration of the former school and his speech can be seen above. Rose Hanscomb spoke on behalf of the residents association. Her speech was;
Barry Grant the chairman of CGRA is unable to be here today, so as a committee member and former pupil, I would like to thank the many people who have contributed to this day. Firstly, Paul and his team, for producing such a fantastic restoration of the building we thought might be lost forever, when we saw the bulldozers arrive 3 years ago. and Steve Farrell at TRDC for all his hard work and support throughout.

The neighbours, especially Margaret and Colin Burgess who alerted the police on many occasions and generally kept us informed also Julia Mattheson who did so much research to try to establish the architect and details of the history of the school.

My thanks to Margaret Pomfret, who not only put in many hours researching YRS’s history but who lurked with me on summer evenings outside the school to note the presence of the resident bats. The bats did their bit to save the school too, Paul has even created accommodation for them. Diane Galloway from All Saints Church was also very helpful throughout with information from the church archives. She is also doing an exhibition about the school, I understand. Dudley Edmunds a Parish Councillor, who came along with his dog, quite by accident, at just the right moment, to confront the demolition crew with us. Ross Humphries webmaster for RA who has kept the website updated with photos of each stage of the restoration, not forgetting Joan Zanelli sending out endless publicity and endless support .

A big thank you to the KCGG who together with the RA, sponsored the stone name plaques and donated a rose bush for the car park, and especially Mandy Grant, June and Roger Emsen, they are always there when you need them. The campaign was kept in the public eye in the Resident Magazine together with My Croxley and Watford Observer, they all helped to galvanise support.

Lastly, but very importantly, thank everyone who emailed, or wrote letters to TR to support Paul’s Planning application. Letters came from ex pupils like myself, and ones from Viet Nam, Canada and Australia. Many residents signed our petitions, I must mention Clare of CJ Barbers who did a great job collecting a huge number of names, lots of people just appreciate the history and the architecture of the building and didn’t want to see it lost to unsympathetic developers.

It has been a long hard fight with lots of ups and downs but I know you will agree it was worth it. It was a real community effort to save Yorke Road School’s amazing building.

Mr Les Mead Chairman of Three Rivers District Council officially opened the new development

The former school was officially opened by Mr. Les Mead Chairman of Three Rivers District Council. His speech is below.
"Hello everybody. It's a real pleasure to be here this beautifully sunny lunch time. Before this building was vandalised by its previous owners, I used to pass it on my way to Watford and often thought that it would make a great museum building for Three Rivers Museum Trust. If I had been lucky enough to win the lottery that is what it would have been. Like you all I was devastated when it was partially demolished, but luckily the locals were on hand. I was so pleased when Paul O'Reilly came on the scene and he has not let us down with his fine refurbishment of the building. So with great pleasure I would like to officially open the new Yorke Road School development. Many thanks to Paul for the foresight and ambition to see the project through. You should be able to see the rebirth later this year on my You Tube channel as I filmed the rebuild over many months." You can view Les's You Tube channel HERE Blog page HERE and Flickr page HERE

Naming of the Units

Steve Farrell Senior Planning Officer at Three Rivers District Council

Steve Farrell BA(Hons) MRTPI Dip.Building Conservation. IHBC
Senior Planning & Conservation Officer Three Rivers District Council spoke of his involvement in helping to preserve the former school. His speech is below;
My involvement in Yorke Road School (YRS) as Conservation Officer goes back to early 2008 when the owners of YRS, Leukaemia Research Fund (LRF) announced they were looking to sell YRS and they no longer intended using it as storage for their donations. There was concern expressed by many Croxley residents that its possible loss would result in a significant part of Croxley's limited Victorian history being be lost? YRS was not in a Conservation Area or locally or nationally listed so it was truly a "Building at Risk" of loss without protection of Planning or any other legislation.
I did some research helped by adjacent neighbours that resulted in me writing a Report to TRDC in August 2008 to recommend YRS become a Locally Listed Building in line with TR Planning Policies.
YRS was completed in 1874 and quite probably designed by distinguished Victorian Architect, John Norton who designed the adjacent All Saints Church, completed in 1872. YRS was one of the first National Schools in the programme that followed the Forster Education Act of 1870,which allowed the creation of local school Boards and a rapid increase of new schools nationally. When it opened in 1874 it accommodated 120 local children, most of whom no longer had to walk 3/4mile up and down Scots Hill twice a day to school!! - Phew!!

The school was in constant use for 103 years until it closed in 1977 when Herts. County Council sold it off to LRF for storage. In the summer of 2009 LRF applied to Demolish YRS and build Townhouses. The subsequent application for demolition and build Townhouses was refused by TRDC as it was a Locally Listed Building and a subsequent Appeal was dismissed by the Planning Inspectorate too.
In late 2009 TRDC commissioned an independent Report on the history and significance of YRS as a supporting document in a submission to English Heritage for National Listing. In late 2010 EH announced its decision Not to List YRS citing:- lack of coherence, standardised plan form, later unsympathetic additions and lack of distinctive architectural detail (they must not have seen the "naughty seat" ) all of which could be contested but there is no right of Appeal to EH through DCMS other than demonstrating lack of appropriate process and/or further significant information. The English Heritage Case Officer all but admitted that had it been proven YRS was designed by John Norton it would have been Grade II Listed. Conservation Advice to LRF in early 2011 was that it should look to conversion to 4 dwellings rather than seeking Demolition and rebuild.
At 9.30am on 6th June 2011, I received a call from Mr Burgess next door to YRS that a JCB was starting to demolish part of the north front gable end? When I arrived minutes later nearly 20% of the north wing was reduced to rubble and I screamed at the JCB Driver to stop and show me his authorisation to proceed with Demolition? By 10am a considerable crowd of residents, and a dog, had assembled outside the School and re-enforcements had arrived from the office creating such a maddening crowd that I think the JCB driver decided to stop work and went off to call the Office - Phew!!
The site lay in a derelict mess for over a year before LRF was approached by Paul O’Reilly who offered to buy it in late 2012 and PP was subsequently granted in May 2013 for the sensitive and sympathetic conversion of YRS to 4 dwellings you see here today. It's gratifying to see here in May 2014 that the development of a historic building 140 years old can be saved modernised and be sensitive to the wishes of a local community to save and conserve an important local heritage asset. Paul O'Reilly and his team has ably and skilfully demonstrated that the wonderful "Phoenix from the ashes" you see risen here today can preserve both the form and spirit of a community's past and it is now a shining example of Croxley's present that all involved with can be proud of.

Thanks for listening. Phew!