Museum plans for Old Bluecoat School?

The charity behind the school has enlisted a fundraiser to help raise the £400,000 needed for refurbishments

PART of the Old Bluecoat School could be used as local history museum, once the extension and refurbishment are completed.

The Harts Hill Road building, which is more than 700 years old, re-opened following minor work at the end of last year, and the charity behind it is now looking for community groups to use it.

Charity chairman Clive Williams said that the team behind the transformation had enlisted a professional fundraiser to help raise the £400,000 needed to complete the work.

He said that once the building was more user-friendly, he imagined it could be partly used as a museum, possibly housing local historian Malcolm Langford's collection of artefacts.

Mr Williams said: “We want to make it permanently for community use.

“We could have history exhibits there – maybe like a little museum.”

The charity and the fundraiser will approach about 57 national charitable trusts that give money for the upkeep of historical buildings.

Works needed to be done include new toilets, new storage space and an extension.

The charity hopes that, once finished, this will attract new users, such as fitness classes.

Currently, only a couple of groups, such as Cold Ash Brass, are using the building.

Mr Williams added: “We are so limited with the space we have now, but it is going to be a bit more user-friendly.

“That would put the building in tip-top condition.

“It was unusable before.

People don't want to go into a building where bits of the wall are coming off.

“We have to generate the money we need to put the place to right.”