Intro
Recently been researching the area and found little about the site, I was informed about the closure a while ago but didn't think anything of it until a few weeks ago. Then 20 minutes and a bit of research I found myself planning a visit.
The school
The school was made up of 5 separate main buildings and 3 other smaller buildings on Fox crescent including care takers office, a main building with a clock tower, 2 sixth form buildings and an extra science department. it specialised in performing arts.
History
St. peter's began life as Rainsford High school with the north building being built in 1939. It was a church of England voluntarily aided school situated in the North, North/west of Chelmsford.
Sixth form was later added (St. Peter's college) and a theatre was built for the drama department.
In the 1960's an extra science department building was added to the South of the main building, probably to help supply education to the growing population of youth in Chelmsford.
Closure
Gradually from the 1990's, the population of students began to decline as competition became fierce with the large schools in the area, Hylands, Chelmer valley high, St. John Payne and the boys county high.
Then as population declined, so did exam results, and towards 2006-2010 exam results fell to only 8% of students receiving A*-C's.
The police, OFSTED, and other contributing organisations began to be introduced to the community to help keep the place going. Results began creeping back up to an acceptable standard however this was not enough and students began to leave. Eventually in August 2011 the school closed it's doors for the last time.
A few news reports:
St Peter's College will 'work towards improving its GCSE results ' for 2010 (From Chelmsford Weekly News)
EXCLUSIVE: St Peter's College in Chelmsford to shut | Essex Chronicle
Amazingly the website for the school is still up, it includes news, homework, timetables and messages from the head teacher, Mr Kulvinder Cheema.
This can be found here:
St Peter's College: Home
The explore
Access was interesting... Obviously I won't go into detail but it was exactly easy!
Electricity is on and so are a lot of the lights!
Security was very strange. I essentially walked in front of them on multiple occasions, I even set of an alarm twice and almost walked into them as they were turning it off!
It is definitely a great site and I'm quite amazed no one has done it before or even mentioned it!
Unfortunately due to some random doors being locked and completely unavoidable throughout the building I was only able to get internal pictures of the North of the north building (drama hall, theatre, dance and music halls, storage and the north hall).
The clock tower was definitely the best part of the day.
The 1960's science department did look interesting but I had run out of time after spending 3 hours on the site to find access, my batteries were also running out!
I also managed to get in the caretakers office but didn't see it necessary to get into sixth, I could see from outside it was pretty empty and rather boring!
The photos
Again I still haven't managed to save up for a DSLR, so you'll all have to do with my dodgy pictures from a mobile phone! A second visit should definitely be done so I can document the rest of the site!
Externals of the main building
Clock tower from the roof
Inside the clock tower
South of the school from the clock tower
North of the school from the clock tower
The North sports hall, gym. Unfortunately lights were on on only the right side of the hall.
Storage room for chairs, tables etc.
Music/practice rooms
Drama hall and balcony
Dance studio
Front entrance
Sixth form and the college buildings
Caretaker's office, workshop
Caretakers building in the foreground, the grey building is the science building
Workshop
Boiler room
And finally a piano and some keys
I apologise for the amount of photos, but it's a massive place and I only covered a fraction of it here. I took over 200 pics. If anyone wishes to see more pics, let me know!
Recently been researching the area and found little about the site, I was informed about the closure a while ago but didn't think anything of it until a few weeks ago. Then 20 minutes and a bit of research I found myself planning a visit.
The school
The school was made up of 5 separate main buildings and 3 other smaller buildings on Fox crescent including care takers office, a main building with a clock tower, 2 sixth form buildings and an extra science department. it specialised in performing arts.
History
St. peter's began life as Rainsford High school with the north building being built in 1939. It was a church of England voluntarily aided school situated in the North, North/west of Chelmsford.
Sixth form was later added (St. Peter's college) and a theatre was built for the drama department.
In the 1960's an extra science department building was added to the South of the main building, probably to help supply education to the growing population of youth in Chelmsford.
Closure
Gradually from the 1990's, the population of students began to decline as competition became fierce with the large schools in the area, Hylands, Chelmer valley high, St. John Payne and the boys county high.
Then as population declined, so did exam results, and towards 2006-2010 exam results fell to only 8% of students receiving A*-C's.
The police, OFSTED, and other contributing organisations began to be introduced to the community to help keep the place going. Results began creeping back up to an acceptable standard however this was not enough and students began to leave. Eventually in August 2011 the school closed it's doors for the last time.
A few news reports:
St Peter's College will 'work towards improving its GCSE results ' for 2010 (From Chelmsford Weekly News)
EXCLUSIVE: St Peter's College in Chelmsford to shut | Essex Chronicle
Amazingly the website for the school is still up, it includes news, homework, timetables and messages from the head teacher, Mr Kulvinder Cheema.
This can be found here:
St Peter's College: Home
The explore
Access was interesting... Obviously I won't go into detail but it was exactly easy!
Electricity is on and so are a lot of the lights!
Security was very strange. I essentially walked in front of them on multiple occasions, I even set of an alarm twice and almost walked into them as they were turning it off!
It is definitely a great site and I'm quite amazed no one has done it before or even mentioned it!
Unfortunately due to some random doors being locked and completely unavoidable throughout the building I was only able to get internal pictures of the North of the north building (drama hall, theatre, dance and music halls, storage and the north hall).
The clock tower was definitely the best part of the day.
The 1960's science department did look interesting but I had run out of time after spending 3 hours on the site to find access, my batteries were also running out!
I also managed to get in the caretakers office but didn't see it necessary to get into sixth, I could see from outside it was pretty empty and rather boring!
The photos
Again I still haven't managed to save up for a DSLR, so you'll all have to do with my dodgy pictures from a mobile phone! A second visit should definitely be done so I can document the rest of the site!
Externals of the main building
Clock tower from the roof
Inside the clock tower
South of the school from the clock tower
North of the school from the clock tower
The North sports hall, gym. Unfortunately lights were on on only the right side of the hall.
Storage room for chairs, tables etc.
Music/practice rooms
Drama hall and balcony
Dance studio
Front entrance
Sixth form and the college buildings
Caretaker's office, workshop
Caretakers building in the foreground, the grey building is the science building
Workshop
Boiler room
And finally a piano and some keys
I apologise for the amount of photos, but it's a massive place and I only covered a fraction of it here. I took over 200 pics. If anyone wishes to see more pics, let me know!
You got some good shots aswell!
