AN affordable housing scheme which has resulted in the sympathetic refurbishment of historic almshouses in a North Yorkshire village has been officially opened.

Local charity The Matthew Robinson Trust, in partnership with Broadacres Housing Association has created four new homes in the village of Burneston, near Bedale.

This has involved the refurbishment of two Almshouses built in 1680, along with the former schoolmasters’ house and school room.

The scheme was officially opened by Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant for North Yorkshire, Johanna Ropner.

Broadacres provided its professional services to support The Matthew Robinson Trust in realising its vision of restoring the buildings. This included local consultation, submitting the necessary planning applications, making applications for funding, and choosing the contractor for the refurbishment.

The two existing Almshouses and old school room, which are Grade 2* listed and were vacant for a while, have undergone an extensive external and internal refurbishment, creating a ‘new’ one-bedroom home alongside the existing one and two-bedroom Almshouse homes.

In addition, the former schoolmasters’ house has been extended from an existing two-bedroom home into a four-bedroom family home.

The homes are all in the process of being let to people with a connection to Burneston, or the surrounding area.

Hambleton rural housing enabler Amanda Madden, who made the initial approach about restoring the buildings, said: “As soon as I was approached by the trust to look at options for the buildings, I knew this was a scheme that would make a difference to all of us that would work on it, the community and it was a project that we could ensure Matthew Robinson would be proud of what we could achieve.”

The contractor on the scheme was Moody Construction and the architect was P+HS Architects. Identity Consult (employers’ agents) and Fairhurst (consulting and structural engineers) also provided support.

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