Repairs planned for historic listed college building

City council planning bosses this week granted consent for the works at The Towers grade II* listed building, which is part of Tettenhall College.

The school in Wood Road was originally founded in 1863, with significant expansion taking place when it bought Tettenhall Towers in 1943. Overseas pupils also first joined the school in the 1960s and girls entered the sixth form in 1969.

Repairs are being made to stop rainwater building up in an internal roof valley and also to raise up a section of an exterior parapet to prevent weathering. Both arise from ongoing routine repair and maintenance and are required to protect the building’s integrity for the longer term.

A statement from Birmingham-based PCPT Architects, submitted alongside the application, said: “There are 18 rooflight locations and three dormer roof windows. Most of these are intact and remain, although all have now been boarded over.

“Whilst the college has undertaken only a few adaptations to The Towers, the

fabric has been intensively used and there has been some heritage losses. Not only is the entire roof covering in a poor condition, but it cannot be refurbished and therefore all parts need to be replaced.

“The roof at Tettenhall Towers is a very complex form of ridges and valleys in an arrangement which, unless excellently maintained, is bound to be fraught with problems. The decision to coat all the roof with a bitumen fabric – a process know as ‘Turnerising’ – effectively inhibited repairs and prevented maintenance. And the presence of asbestos now prohibits most things,” added the report.

Tettenhall Towers was built by Wolverhampton industrialist Colonel Thomas Thorneycroft – also a poet, composer and inveterate inventor – as a house for him and his family, which he extended and adapted into a very complicated arrangement of more than 100 rooms over three floors.

The Towers Theatre was originally a ballroom and has springs under the floor to make it a better dancing surface. The stage was built later for the school when it started.  Among the inventions in use at Tettenhall Towers were an internal telegraph system, bell pulls and telephones.

Notable former pupils of the school include actor Nigel Bennett, who has appeared extensively in films including Legends of the Fall with Anthony Hopkins and Brad Pitt, and The Shape of Water with Sally Hawkins, as well as regular TV appearances since 1977.

Others include former children’s TV presenter and artist Mark Speight, who was sadly found hanged at Paddington Station in 2008, runner Peter Radford who won a bronze medal in the 100 metres at the Rome Olympics in 1960, and cricketer Tom Fell, who plays for Worcestershire.