Oswestry School lodges 'bold and ambitious' £2 million plan to extend theatre
A north Shropshire school has unveiled a £2.4million scheme to refurbish and extend its theatre and performing arts facilities.
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Plans lodged with Shropshire Council this week will see the Oswestry School’s memorial hall transformed into a modern 160-seat auditorium with added rehearsal spaces for dance students.
The school says the existing theatre building at their Upper Brook Street site is too small to meet the needs of their performing arts curriculum and lacks dedicated dance rehearsal spaces.
Around 170 students receive tuition separately at the Oswestry Dance Academy based at the school, around 120 of whom are not pupils, the school says.
A planned opening date has been slated in for 2026 to coincide with the school’s 250th anniversary on its current site, with around half the cost of the new development already raised following a donation from a school benefactor.
“The proposed works will create a larger performance facility and new dance rehearsal teaching facilities within a series of multi-functional spaces, alongside a range of ancillary accommodation,” said a planning statement submitted with the application.
“The building will also strongly feature in terms of visual prominence from the school entrance, and a carefully designed landscape frontage to the building will help sensitively embed the architectural form within the sensitive garden setting of the listed School House building surfaces.”
A pre-application process was completed earlier this year, with advice supplied to the school by council planners.
The school says the facility will be used as both a performance space and as a teaching facility at various times, with the potential for use as a hire venue for the local community.
“This is a bold and ambitious project, and one that we are passionate about, placing the Performing Arts at the heart of our school and providing our local community with a new theatre and performance venue within walking distance of the centre of the town of Oswestry,” said headmaster Peter Middleton in a statement.
“The stage is set for an exciting new facility for our school and our town, and we are greatly looking forward to bringing the vision into reality.”
The plans will be decided by Shropshire Council in due course.
