The two Almshouses in their current state HISTORIC schoolrooms will undergo a £640,000 refurbishment to sympathetically transform them into affordable homes. A partnership between The Matthew Robinson Trust and Broadacres Housing Association will result in two Almshouses built in 1680, along with a former schoolmasters’ house and schoolroom, being remodelled into new, modern homes in Burneston, near Bedale. Work will start later this month and once completed later this year, the homes will be let to people with a connection to the village or surrounding area. The two existing Almshouses and old school room, which are Grade II listed and have been vacant for a while, will undergo an external and internal refurbishment, with a ‘light touch’ approaching being taken to sympathetically repair the fabric of the building.This will create a ‘new’ one-bedroom property alongside the existing one and two-bedroom Almshouse properties within the Grade 2 listed buildings.
A FORMER blacksmith has returned to live in his home town thanks to a new affordable homes scheme. Bob Leete has been able to move back to Helmsley where he was born and bred, after 18 new homes for affordable rent were provided by Broadacres Housing Association, in partnership with Wharfedale Homes. All the homes have been allocated to people with a connection to the town and surrounding area, as part of Broadacres’s strategy to ensure rural communities in North Yorkshire remain sustainable for future generations. Mr Leete, 65, said: “For the past two years I have lived away from Helmsley and because of short-term leases on rented properties I have had to move four times.