New School Planned At Conisbrough

Almost 350 pupils at Morley Place Junior School Conisborough are to be re-housed, it is hoped by 1979, in a new school building in Ivanhoe Park, behind the Lord Conyers Hotel. The decision to close Morley Place and build a new school came last September when the Education Authority considered it more economical than to continue with the maintenance of the 95 years old school. Old school Headmaster, Mr. C. W. James said this week: “The reason for closing down is that it is, such an ancient school. It is ready to be replaced, plus the fact that the building is as old as it is it costs So much to maintain, and to make the school mast the requirements of modern education it would in the long term be more economical to rebuild.

Fault

“The school is built on a geological fault, which means a settling is taking place on one side of the building. There is a rock escarpment running across the land 18 inches below the surface providing a solid foundation for the top end of the school. Then this ceases and goes down 12 feet or so into soft sub-soil. Cracks are running across the playground and affecting two classrooms and two cloakrooms, and have at one point interrupted the heating as the pipes run underground.”

Beside this, said Mr. James, the school is antiquated and it would cost too much to provide suitable facilities for a modern educational environment. He reported a spending of £400 only two years ago to modernise a cloakroom.

Exciting

“Plans for the new school are now being drawn,” he said, “and we are hoping the Authority will build us a rather exciting new school ready for occupation in 18 months or two years. We are sending tentative suggestions to the West Riding on the type of new school we would like.”

Deputy education officer for the area, Mr. Sam Walker, told the “South Yorkshire Times” this week: “Morley Place School has served its useful purpose. The new school will be an eight class building which may not conform to the pattern of any other school and will provide all the facilities for modern education.”