St Bart's former school sites to be named
Councillors to discuss suggested names for Luker and Wormestall sites this evening (Monday)
NEWBURY town councillors will tonight (Monday) consider names put forward for the new apartment blocks and the streets surrounding the former St Bartholomew's School buildings at Luker and Wormestall.
The two former Newbury school sites are being converted into homes following the construction of a new sustainable building, which now houses all pupils from both sites after they moved in in November 2010.
For the Wormestall site, which fronts Fifth Road and Buckingham Road and formerly housed the school's sixth form pupils, developer Linden Homes considered titles taken from the school houses which are named after former St Bartholomew's pupils who were killed in the First World War: Robert Patterson, Bertram Saxelbye Evers, George Ashwin Curnock and Alexander Davis.
It has been suggested the names Evers Place and Patterson Place be used, which now represent the blue and yellow school house colours, respectively. The rest of the properties will be numbered into Buckingham Road.
The old school has already been named as Wormestall Grange in keeping with the original historical Wormestall name which derives from the founder of the St Bartholomew's Boys' Grammar School, Henry Wormestall.
Two detached houses will be named Saxelby House and Ashwin House, the middle names of Evers and Curnock.
Various alumni of St Bart's, including inventors Herbert Akroyd Stuart and Charles Neufeld, actor Robert Newton, artist Brian Pike, classicist Sir Denys Page or historian and curator Lucy Worsley, were considered as possible names for the Luker site fronting Andover Road and Buckingham Road.
From this list of Old Newburians, it has been suggested by Linden Homes that Neufeld Drive become the street name and the two apartment blocks be named Worsley House and Luker Court.
The developers hope to have refurbished the historic structures by mid 2012 to create a number of one, two and three bedroom apartments, together with a selection of new townhouses and detached family homes within the old school grounds.
In total, the two sites will produce 84 new homes when the development is complete, including 47 at the redevelopment of the Wormestall site, with the conversion of the existing Victorian school building into 14 apartments and 33 other new dwellings.
The Edwardian Luker building (pictured) in Andover Road which was part of St Bart's School is being turned into 22 flats and a new three-storey building with 15 new apartments is being built.
Newbury Town Council's planning and highways committee will consider the suggested new street and block names, supplied by West Berkshire Council's Street Naming Officer, at the meeting in Newbury Town Hall tonight at 7.30pm.
