ACTION is being taken to protect a derelict Victorian village school from the threat of demolition.

Residents in Garway who mounted a campaign to prevent the 144-year-old building from being knocked down are now hoping that Herefordshire Council’s bid for listed building status will halt further attempts to remove it.

Planning permission was given in 2013 to convert the old stone-built school, which carries its 1877 foundation date on the front, into two homes.

But villagers were outraged when planners received a "permitted development" bid from Gerard Davies of Old Hendre Farm, Wonastow, near Monmouth, to demolish the structure, which has been left to fall into disrepair and is partly overgrown by weeds and trees.

The council received 35 objection letters, including one from campaign group Save Britain’s Heritage, before dismissing the "prior notification" application and telling Mr Davies he needed full planning permission to go ahead with the building’s destruction.

The council has now responded to residents’ calls to protect the building by applying to Historic England for listed building status.

Garway Parish Council are also discussing the possibility of getting it designated as a community asset.

SBH backed by residents successfully challenged the owner’s application to bulldoze the school under permitted development rights, citing a lack of sufficient information and public consultation.

It also questioned why the school could not be retained and converted, given that the owner was granted permission to convert it into homes but did not carry out the plans.

SBH conservation officer Ben Oakley, describes the building, which served as the village primary school for over a century until it closed in 1980, as "charming".

"We welcome Herefordshire Council’s decision to dismiss these unjustified demolition plans, and strongly support their efforts to protect the building through listing," he said.

"The swift response and strong local campaign mounted against demolition speaks to the extent to which people care about their heritage."

The council’s application for listed building status says: "The Old School represents an important community symbol to the residents of Garway, is an important survival of a rare building type in rural Herefordshire, and is a good example, mostly intact, of a building designed by a locally born architect."

Prior to 1870, the local vicar educated local children in the Chapel of St Michael’s Church.

Following the Education Act of 1870, the Skenfrith School Board was established in 1874 and it decided to build a board school in the village with a teacher’s residence nearby.

The architect appointed was EH Linger Barker, who was Herefordshire-born and also designed schools in Grosmont, New Inn (Cross Ash) and Norton.

His design for Garway’s new school consisted of a large schoolroom with tall windows, a smaller schoolroom, and an adjoining headmaster’s residence.

After closing 41 years ago when a new school was built across the road, Garway Old School was lived in as a house until 2013, but has been left empty and rotting ever since.

SBH told county planners the destruction would be a "needless loss".

Villager Austin Keenan, who objected to the Old School’s demolition, said: "It is a lovely example of a Victorian schoolhouse and an essential part of the history and fabric of Garway village which can never be replaced...

"The Old School is one of only a very few heritage buildings in the village and of the surrounding area.

"It has been neglected and fallen into disrepair so it can be demolished and new houses built.

"If it had been listed years ago, dilapidation orders could have been imposed to prevent this dreadful neglectâ?¦"

In his application, Mr Davies said his aim was "to clear the site of buildings which are no longer needed".

But a report by council planning official Simon Withers said: "The Old School, Garway, is an attractive Victorian stone-built, former school house located in a visually prominent roadside location at the western end of the village and in close proximity to the school and village hall.

"It is unlisted but is certainly of sufficient architectural quality to be considered a non-designated heritage asset."

Garway parish councillor Cara Campbell said: "The school building is an important site in the history of the village and the closest significant old building to the present-day centre of the village.

"It’s a beautiful and interesting part of our culture that should be protected rather than left to degrade as it has been."

Last year villagers also fought to save Garway’s 1920s closed down village hall.

The new community hall was built three years ago to replace the old corrugated iron building, but villagers then held up a bid to sell the old hall by the trust responsible for it, saying they wanted it to be retained for the benefit of the community, such as an art exhibition space.

The trustees put it up for sale at the start of the year with the aim of it benefitting the community through tourism use, small business development, enhanced cultural provision, or residential development, and has now been sold.