Multi-million pound project transforms mothballed school

Contractor Clegg Construction has completed a £5.9m renovation scheme to transform Maltby Grammar School, near Rotherham, into a community resource and education centre.

During the course of the project, Clegg invested more than £3m into the local economy by using local labour and materials wherever possible.

Nine former Maltby Grammar School students, as well as a number of people from the Maltby area, were part of the workforce.

Pre-construction director at Clegg Construction, Ross Crowcroft, said: “We are pleased to have handed over the repurposed and renovated Maltby Grammar School to Maltby Learning Trust.

“The building has had a distinguished past and now has a bright future as a superb community resource, providing local services and learning facilities.

“Clegg Construction takes pride in supporting local communities wherever we work, which has been aptly demonstrated by our commitment to the local economy in the Maltby and South Yorkshire area and the people who live there.”

During the course of the renovation, Clegg worked with clock repair and dial restoration specialists, Smith of Derby Ltd, to repair the clock tower at Maltby Grammar School – getting it working again for the first time in 10 years.

The renovated Maltby Grammar School will accommodate local services, support wellbeing, employment and enterprise, and provide substantial learning opportunities.

The building will also extend Maltby Learning Trust’s post-16 specialist facilities and create an incubator space for training, apprenticeships and start-up support in the leisure and hospitality sectors.

Maltby Learning Trust CEO, David Sutton, said: “We are thrilled with the work that Clegg Construction has done to renovate and refurbish the former Maltby Grammar School Building.

“The trust will now be working to fit out the interior of the multi-purpose building to make it suitable for our sixth form, business, and community audiences.

“This project will make a huge difference to the area by offering a space for people to learn, reskill, work, and thrive. We are looking forward to opening the building later in the year with a series of events.”

Built in the early 1930s, the school closed in 2012 and had fallen into a state of disrepair after being mothballed.

The redevelopment project was part of a winning bid to the Government’s Levelling Up Fund secured by Rotherham Council, which focused on boosting the leisure and hospitality sectors in the area. The Levelling Up Fund provided £4.5m towards the project.

Other members of the team involved in the scheme included Self Architects, engineer GCA Ltd and employer’s agent and project manager Cube.

Source: The Business Desk