£10,000 to help convert former Startforth school into community hub

A DESERTED school building given a new lease of life by villagers has been given a five figure cash boost to bring back youngsters.

Volunteers who re-opened Startforth Morritt Memorial primary school as a community centre have been granted £10,000 by their parish council.

The money will go towards helping ready the building for a new nursery expected in Spring this year alongside helping to fund its day-to-day running and heating costs.

Villager Colin Clarke has been one of the driving forces on the community centre’s new committee.

He said: “It’s really to improve the facilities – particularly with the new nursery we are planning to host.

“The parish council have been really supportive of us over the past six months.”

Startforth’s school was closed by Durham County Council at the end of 2016 leaving the an empty shell in its wake.

But this year has seen it host a burgeoning lunch club, yoga classes, choirs, the U3A (University of the Third Age) the Castle Players and Bright Woods Forest School among numerous other groups.

Parish chairwoman Sue Ellwood handed over the hefty cheque to Mr Clarke last week.

She said: “As a parish council we have massively supporting the school as much as possible to get it used.

“The biggest thing is the running cost and the need to have income generation so they can make the building fit for purpose.

“So as a parish council that’s why we want to help it by providing £10,000.”

Half the old school building is owned by the county council while the older half belongs to the Diocese of Leeds.

Cllr Ellwood revealed Janice Duffy-McGhie, owner of Kirklands Nursery, in Barnard Castle, was planning to move into the old school building once everything was readied.

One of the other groups to make use of the old school has been Startforth Lunch Club which has seen regular turnouts of more than 30 people every Thursday since starting in the summer.

Club member and villager Marjorie Mounter said she’d never known anything like it in her 20 years in the village.

She added: “It’s amazing the number of people who come every week. It is tremendous and is down to the hard work and enthusiasm of the volunteers.”

The parish council helped push the lunch club along with an initial £500 to buy cutlery and plates. Cllr Ellwood added: “When the school closed everything had gone – there wasn’t a spoon in the place so we had to start again.

“A lot of this was done by Eunice Tate, Cllr Debbie Herbert and all the volunteers who helped sort it.

“It’s brought the community together and that’s what it’s all about.”