York's Queen Margaret's School for sale for £5m after closure
Ancillary buildings, including classroom and dormitory blocks, two swimming pools, a sports hall and tennis courts are also part of the former school site.The independent boarding and day school was founded in 1901 and provided education for girls aged 11 to 18.
In June, the school announced via a statement published to its website that despite pursuing "every possible avenue", low pupil enrolment and lack of funding were amongst the reasons it was to close.VAT on school fees, as well as "increased national insurance and pension contributions, the removal of charitable-status business rates relief, and rising costs for the upkeep and operation of our estate", were also behind the closure, it said.The school was placed in the hands of administrators on 7 July.
Neil Bestwick, partner in the Asset Advisory and Recovery division, called the former school an "important piece of real estate"."We are exploring the potential for a resurrected education-based use but also expect to see expressions of interest for alternative uses, including residential, leisure, and care, for which the property would be suited, subject, of course, to planning and other consents," he said.Queen Margaret's School began life in Scarborough before the lease of Escrick Hall in 1949. The school purchased the building from the Forbes Adam family in the 1970s.Another former boarding school near York, Gilling Castle, is set to become retirement apartments after its closure by Ampleforth College in 2018.
Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
6 hours ago
- Telegraph
‘We ditched the 9-5 to buy the village shop – it's thriving'
Has your village been revitalised by its shop or a community activity? Let us know at money@ Dale Stores in Birstwith, near Harrogate in Yorkshire, is heaving at 11 on a Thursday morning. Tradesmen pile in to buy their lunch and locals grab the paper and a loaf of bread. 'Every village should have a shop,' says Andrea Walwyn as she makes room for more customers to squeeze in. The sense of community is immediately obvious as Walwyn, 60, greets nearly everyone by name and asks them about their lives. Birstwith is a tiny village, 20 minutes from the spa town of Harrogate with one school, a GP surgery and a pub. Before the Walwyns took over in 2006, the shop had been an ordinary convenience store that looked unlikely to survive. Now it has become the beating heart of the village, a hub of activity and support for locals. Walwyn runs the small shop with her husband Matthew. It's not a high-end farm shop: a loaf of sourdough will only cost you £2.99. Fresh and local produce are on offer, but so too are the price-matched items you might find in a corner shop, along with a Post Office counter. When they saw the store was for sale, the husband and wife took a leap of faith and quit their nine-to-fives to take it on. They were tired of never seeing each other while she was a managing director of a division of pest control firm Rentokil and he worked for a Belgian bakery company. 'We were living as ships in the night,' says Walwyn. 'We were never home.' They bought the shop for £487,000 and moved from Harrogate into the house next door. Walwyn says it was the 'scariest thing I've ever done... You're leaving the comfort of a salary, pension, work car, everything'. The couple exude the energy of people half their age, still wearing their Glastonbury Festival wristbands – 'I could live there,' Walwyn admits. This energy is a necessity as they work from 6.30am to 7pm, six days a week. On their first Saturday, they made just £200. 'We sat on the bench outside and we thought, 'what are we going to do?'' Walwyn recalls. 'We would have spent £200 on our weekly shop.' Now, on a Saturday nearly 20 years later, they made £2,000 – a 900pc increase. The shop wouldn't have survived without their intervention, Walwyn admits. Banks, post offices and pubs are increasingly under threat in Britain's rural villages thanks to soaring costs and tax raids. Plunkett, a charity supporting rural community-owned businesses, estimates that in 2024 about 300 village shops and 200 pubs closed their doors. James Lowman, of the Association of Convenience Stores, said in a report: 'Rural shops are increasingly acting as miniature high streets in their own right, taking on services that would have previously been available locally like access to cash, bill payments, Post Office services and prescription collections.' More than 400 bank closures are expected this year, according to the Rural Services Network, along with 150 banking hubs. Earlier this year, the Countryside Alliance said that 'recent high levels of inflation have had a disproportionate impact on village shops and broader rural enterprises'. Meanwhile the Farm Retail Association said as many as half of all farm shops could be forced to close their doors in the coming years as owners are 'hit from both ends' by Rachel Reeves's Budget, due to changes to agricultural property relief as well as employers' National Insurance contributions and minimum wage. High streets in market towns are also struggling; 37 shops closed a day in 2024 according to the Centre for Retail Research. Yet Dale Stores seems to be bucking this trend. Walwyn believes the reason they've thrived is because of their ability to adapt. In the age of online shopping, maintaining a home delivery service has proved fruitful. Its status as a destination – drawing visitors in from as far as Harrogate for a pork pie – has also enabled its survival. It sells traybakes and cakes from local bakeries, pies and pasties from local butchers and fresh bread made in-store daily. The shop has become 'essential' to the village, says David Sutcliffe, who lives a 10-minute walk away. He visits once if not twice a day. 'They're helpful and friendly and it's just an essential part of the village.' Some 40pc of rural shops are the only convenience stores in the area, with no other shops or businesses nearby, the Association of Convenience Stores found. When Covid hit, Dale Stores proved vital for families who couldn't leave the house. The fresh food counter, which had sold more than 200 sandwiches a day for years, closed. In its stead a home delivery service was born. Sixty local volunteers would drive around the Dales delivering groceries and essentials. This trend has continued and certain customers even order the full weekly shop. For some elderly regulars, it provides their only interaction of the day. Customers linger to chat with each other and the staff and the shop feels consistently busy for hours. 'We want to leave customers with a smile on their face,' says Walwyn. She says the key to making a village shop work is trust. The team has built close relationships with customers, including delivering one woman's groceries every week since the pandemic. The 90-year-old can't leave the house so the team unpacks the shopping and also takes her purse to pay her bills. It's this kind of 'special relationship' that makes families choose to shop locally rather than at a chain, the mother of two believes. Students and retirees volunteering together Across Britain there are 407 community-owned shops, creating 7,500 volunteer positions. One such store was created in Trawden, Lancashire after the village's only shop closed in 2016. The locals took matters into their own hands and offered to buy the community centre off the local council for £1. Now, seven years later, a huge operation of 160 volunteers keeps the village shop, library and community centre going. When they bought it, families poured in with paintbrushes to revamp the run-down building and make it fit for parties and groups such as Scouts and Brownies. 'We have all this activity in one tiny village. We've really been able to capitalise on the volunteer spirit and keep the momentum going,' says Ann Boocock. She has lived on the outskirts of Trawden for 33 years – and says she has met 'more people in the past seven years volunteering than I did in the first 26 years living here'. The shop requires 146 hours of volunteering a week to run. That involves everything from serving customers to stacking shelves and doing the accounts. It has a filling station – where you can fill your own jars with herbs and spices – as well as tins and jars and locally sourced meat and vegetables. The volunteers range from pupils completing their Duke of Edinburgh to retirees. Trawden's shop has become a lifeline for the community, Boocock explains, due to the rural nature of the village: 'We're at the end of the road in terms of connections. We easily get cut off when it snows. Last winter no one could leave for three days, we sold out of everything.' The shop and community centre has been able to weather various challenges – from Covid to the cost of living crisis – because of the strong desire to invest locally. Boocock says they 'didn't expect the shop to take off as it did' but it has been a 'huge success story'. Profits are invested back into the charity to spend on maintenance and community clubs. The majority of the customers, as well as those who hire the centre for parties, are local. 'Everybody cares so passionately about our village and that sense of positivity it creates. People really want to spread the love.'
Sky News
7 hours ago
- Sky News
Prince and Princess of Wales to move house
The Prince and Princess of Wales will move to a new home later this year, a Kensington Palace spokesperson has said. William and Kate will swap their current Windsor residence, Adelaide Cottage, for Forest Lodge, an eight-bedroom house in the royal borough's Great Park. "The Wales family will move house later this year," a Kensington Palace spokesperson confirmed in a statement. The couple are paying for the property, believed to be worth £16m, out of their own pocket, according to a report in The Sun. They are also funding minor renovations to the Grade II-listed building, which redacted planning applications reveal include removing a window and improving a fireplace. It comes after an investigation by Channel 4's Dispatches and The Sunday Times found the Duchy of Cornwall, which William inherited from his father when he became Prince of Wales, was renting its estates to public bodies for millions of pounds. Following a backlash, the prince said the duchy will now allow certain charities to use some of the buildings rent-free. Forest Lodge's last major renovation was in 2001, when £1.5m was spent on restoring the property, giving it a monthly rental value of £15,000. It is only a short distance away from where the Waleses live now, allowing their children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis to remain at the same school. While Windsor is their main residence, they also have homes at Anmer Hall in Norfolk and Apartment 1A at Kensington Palace.
BBC News
7 hours ago
- BBC News
Hundreds of flights suffer cancellation for Canada - Wetin cause am and why
Air Canada don suspend all dia flights becos of strike by dia cabin staff and di move fit disturb travel plans for around 130,000 passengers per day, according to di airline. Di union wey dey represent more dan 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants bin confam di 72-hour industrial action early Saturday morning. Di airline say dem don suspend all flights, wey include dose wey dey under dia budget arm Air Canada Rouge, and advise customers wey dey affected make dem no travel to di airport unless dem dey fly wit different airline. Canada largest airline bin begin dey suspend dia flights on Thursday afta di the union of flight attendants bin issue 72-hour strike notice. Air Canada say dem dey extremely disappointed by di decision to strike. During one press conference for Thursday, di union bin force dia way into di center and stop wetin di Air Canada executive vice president dey tok. "Dis na situation wey dey avoidable," Air Canada executive vice president Arielle Meloul tok during di press conference. Although, Canadian jobs minister Patty Hajdu say make Air Canada and di union return to negotiation to avoid di strike, but e no work. Why Air Canada flight attendants go on strike Di Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) wey get 10,000 Air Canada attendants bin provide strike notice on Wednesday afta. Di union say dem bargain in good faith but Air Canada no address issues wey surround wages and unpaid work. Why Air Canada flight attendants dey strike be say dem dey call for higher salaries. Also, dem want make dem get paid for work wen aircraft dey for ground. Earlier dis month, 99.7% of employees by di union bin vote for strike. Sake of dis strike, di airline say around 500 flights go dey affected per day. Flight attendants show for major Canadian airports, wia passengers dey try find new bookings earlier dis week. Air Canada wey dey fly directly to 180 cities worldwide, say dem "suspend all operations". By Friday night, di airline say e don cancel 623 flights wey affect more dan 100,000 passengers. Di airline say e offer flight attendants 38% increase in total compensation ova four years, wit 25% raise for di first year. But di union say di offer dey "below inflation, below market value, below minimum wage" and go still leave flight attendants unpaid for some hours of work wey include boarding and waiting for airports ahead of flights. Wetin go happun to passengers of Air Canada Customers wey dia flights dey cancelled go get notification and dem go receive full refund, according to di airline. Di company say dem don also make arrangements wit oda Canadian and foreign carriers to provide customers wit alternative travel options. Customers go dey notified of di alternative options, but if fit take time or fit no dey immediately possible. Who go dey affected by di Air Canada strike Air Canada dey operate for 64 kontris wit fleet of 259 aircrafts. And dem say di unplanned shutdown na "major risk" to di company and dia employees. Di flight cancellation dey expected to affect 130,000 daily customers, wey include 25,000 Canadians, wey dey travel during di summer period. According to di airline, dem say about 623 flights don dey cancelled and e go affect more dan 100,000 passengers. Reporting by George Wright
