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Malsis Development Begins

John ClarkJohn Clark writes: On Monday 29 January, I had a good tour of the grounds and school buildings with Jonathan Seddon and Mark Tuson, the Contracts Manager for Seddon Construction Ltd.  Any demolition work is scheduled will start on 5 February and the first phase of the housing - on the triangle of the golf course by the farmyard - is scheduled to begin in June.  The work on Malsis Hall and the building of the first houses is to coincide, with only a slightly earlier start for the former in mid-February.  The whole project is scheduled to be completed in June/July 2019.

The Chapel is being preserved of course, Bell and Campion Houses are an integral part of the Care Home ( as is the Garden House)*,the Lodge is to be rebuilt in exactly the same form as the original (the foundations caused us many problems when we were in situ), the lake is being restored to its former glory, the lower part of the top field is to be football pitches for Sutton FC as is most of the old 1st XV rugby pitch, the cricket field will be a leisure area for the care home, the tennis courts after being a contractor car park will be grassed over again, the Hall is to have its Windows replaced in the original style (OM James Patchett has the contract - well done Huddersfield!) and much of the original building will be seen as it was before the building which went on from the Sixties to the Nineties.

I have all the plans, known as the Listed Building Application Drawing Pack which extends to 40 very large pages, and have notified them of certain things which they didn't know such as the presence of the gasometers underneath the farmyard and the boreholes in the field adjoining which were never in fact used.

*After patients have had one to one care, they go into units where they look after themselves as much as they can before going back into society.  They will be in the main hall and the new extension to start with.

If OMs want to know more I can probably help.  In the main I feel that the project is about the best thing that could have happened to the site if it were not to remain as a school.



Patrick Birdsall writes:

Dear John

Thank you very much. This really sounds most positive and I think it really fortunate that you live  nearby in Yorkshire, where you are able to keep a close eye on developments and inform us of progress from time to time. Of course, at a personal level the Birdsall family is relieved and happy at last to have confirmation that the chapel is to be preserved with any of the remaining contents which managed to evade Eddison’s hammer. As you know, this includes my brother Timothy’s small confirmation table, handmade and inscribed by  Ernest Durnley after Tim’s early death in 1963, also the small plaque, commissioned by Bernard Gadney, to our much loved godmother “Auntie West”, who was known to generations of Malsis boys as “Big Matron”. These items can now safely be left where they belong.