Demolition work an historic building in Kirklees has begun.
Bulldozers have moved in to knock down the old Whitcliffe Mount school building which has left campaigners who had tried to save it devastated.
Spen Valley Civic Society says the demolition is “an act of civic vandalism” and secretary Erica Amende said the site could have been redeveloped with profits from its sale being reinvested.
“Instead the contractors are profiting from the value of its materials and we’ll end up with a grass verge,” she added. “This destruction is a disgrace and entirely unnecessary.”
The Whitcliffe Mount Campaign Group say they have found several developers who have offered £600,000 for the building and provided viable options for it to be saved and converted for residential use.
The group says: “We as a community have been let down by all involved. The school trustees have handed a heritage asset over without safeguarding the building which was originally paid for entirely by this community. The council has also made little attempt to find best value for money for the site. This is particularly shocking when we are now undergoing a second library review, have already lost two museums, child services provision is under special measures and the council has repeatedly failed to balance its own budget.
“We have an increasing number of historically significant buildings that are now being sold or demolished on the basis that the service has moved and they have fallen into disuse.
“Kirklees seem intent on developing our green space to fill their revenue gap while brownfield sites are left to fall into increasing dereliction. There also seems to be no plan to do anything about the decreasing local infrastructure that will come under increasing pressure from thousands of new residents that the council are trying to bring into the area.”
The school, known as Whitcliffe Mount Foundation Building, originally opened in September 1910 as Cleckheaton Secondary and Technical School. A sixth form was added in 1913 and in 1928 it became Whitcliffe Mount Grammar School.
It was replaced with a new school which opened its doors last September.
History of Whitcliffe Mount School
In 1902 West Riding County Council education authority decided that the Spen Valley should have one secondary school at Heckmondwike. That school was duly built and in time became Heckmondwike Grammar School.
Cleckheaton councillors and employers were furious that Cleckheaton could not have its own secondary school. Due to the number of diverse and highly skilled industries which flourished in Cleckheaton, well-educated young people were vital to its future economic success.
Five men, dubbed the ‘Cleckheaton Conspirators’, were instrumental in pushing forwards plans for a school. They were John G Mowat, George Whiteley, J Walter Wadsworth, Reginald M Grylls and Will H Clough. These people’s families have played significant roles in Cleckheaton’s history.
The Mowat family later built Cleckheaton Library in 1930. Walter Wadsworth’s son Edward became an internationally famous Vorticist (modernist) artist and invented a way to paint battleships to camouflage them. Reginald Grylls maintained his interest in local education and a middle school at Hightown was named after him.
Faced with the refusal of the county council to provide a school, these five men decided that they and Cleckheaton residents would go it alone and provide one themselves. A charitable Trust was formed which enabled the Technical Institute to pool its resources with the new school venture. The public was invited to subscribe money and raised £3,447, 11 shillings and 6 pence which together with Cleckheaton Council and other benefactors’ contributions met the cost of the school, which was £19,621, 17 shillings and 4 pence.
The first sod was cut on March 31, 1909, and the Foundation stone was laid on June 5, 1909.
The clock and its clock tower were a gift from Chair of the Governors Walter Wadsworth. The new school opened its doors to 95 pupils and 10 staff on September 15, 1910, as Cleckheaton Secondary and Technical School.
