A Victorian education institute set up to offer classes and lectures to adults during the heyday of the textile trade is at risk of closure as its heating bill has risen by £30,000 per year.

The Holmfirth Technical Institute has been run as a community space for the past four years since Kirklees College sold the building, where local artist Ashley Jackson taught for 25 years before setting up his nearby shop and gallery.

It provides a range of courses and activities, from yoga to family history research – honouring the ethos behind its founding in the 1890s – and also offers co-working spaces and offices for small businesses.

It is part of the Holmfirth Conservation Area, often featured in the BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine, and acts as a ‘gateway’ to the town. Since a community buy-out in 2018, the Tech, as it is still known, has become a ‘creative hub’ – but with huge energy bills and a boiler that needs replacing, its future is uncertain and a new fundraising drive has now been launched to ensure the building can remain open.

The old Holmfirth Technical Institute is now the Tech - a community and small business space where classes, activities and exhibitions are held

It has a fascinating history – in its original late Victorian incarnation it had weaving, dyeing and modelling rooms in the basement, a science lecture hall, conversation and reading rooms, library, museum, art studios and chemistry laboratory. Local mill owners and a clothmakers’ guild contributed towards its foundation.

In 1907 the Technical Institute became a secondary school and in 1960 it was converted into a further education college, eventually run by Kirklees College until 2015, when it was mothballed. It was empty and at risk of dereliction until Holmfirth Tech Ltd, a community benefit society, took it over in 2018; yet they are now faced with a £45,000 electricity bill for the next year.

Director Margaret Dale said: “The Tech has continued to grow and it is now the creative hub for arts, learning, wellbeing, and enterprise. However it’s more than that; it’s a warm, safe space where all members of the community can come together. It might be for a coffee, a chat, for some advice about mental health, to simply get out of the house once a week to see someone. There is so much more to The Tech but the increase in utility bills is simply going to stop all of this.

“We don’t make a profit. Everything we make from room hire and commercial space is then put back into the building to keep it going. We managed to get through Covid with minimal support, but then our gas and electricity bill went up from £10,000 to £45,000.

The Tech acts as a 'gateway' to Holmfirth and is part of the Conservation Area

“How are we supposed to be able to keep the doors open? We simply can’t, that’s the reality, and there is no relief for charities which play a vital role within society. Literally everything that we’ve worked on will just go to rack and ruin and the historic heart of Holmfirth will simply be boarded up.”

To donate to the Heat Holmfirth Tech fundraising appeal, visit their Justgiving page here.

Holmfirth Technical Institute: Historic college in Last of the Summer Wine country where artist Ashley Jackson taught at risk of closure as heating bill rises by £30,000 per year