Yorkshire private school submits plans for new sports pitches on site of historic gardens

Mylnhurst Preparatory School and Nursery on Button Hill, Ecclesall, has asked Sheffield City Council for permission to build artificial grass pitches including cricket, netball and hockey as well as a sports wall and sheltered lodge.

Its building is Grade II listed and built in 1883 as a house for army officer Major William Greaves Blake and his family, which included 12 children. Records show it was rural and surrounded by open farmland interspersed with pockets of woodland at the time, and Mylnhurst’s gardens were renowned.

After the Major’s widow, Rebecca of the Jessop steel-making family, died in 1920, the house was sold to John Walsh, who owned a famous Sheffield department store. It was then sold to the Sisters of Mercy for use as a Catholic convent school in 1933.

Agent Paul Bedwell Town Planning, on behalf of the school, said: “The application proposals will allow pupils at the school to enjoy enhanced play and sports facilities and also to have access to shelter and shade throughout the year.

“There would be undoubted benefits in providing enhanced facilities for sport and children’s play for pupils of the school and nursery and it is not considered that the proposal will result in harm either to the listed building or to any other designated heritage asset.

“The application proposals are considered to represent a suitable balance between the educational needs of the school and its pupils and the requirement to maintain visual amenity in the historic garden.”

The school is also planning to add bird and bat boxes, hedgehog houses and hibernation shelters.

The agent said works were required urgently and are expected to take between five and six weeks to complete, with the aim being that it is carried out over the summer holidays.

There are no comments from members of the public on the plans so far.

To read the plans in full or comment, visit the council’s website here: https://planningapps.sheffield.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=summary&keyVal=RUPJ76NYKJH00