Silian School
What: Infant school, later village hall
Where: Silian, Ceredigion
Built: 1856
Architect: Unknown
Abandoned: c. 2000
Listed: No
Visited: 2006, 2013
Last Known Condition: Derelict - a community
project is pursuing conversion.
Page Updated: March 2014
Silian School is a plain school building dating from 1856 when a piece of common land was entrusted to the small village of Silian, near Lampeter by Her Late Majesty Queen Victoria to provide for an infant
school.
The church was responsible for running the school until 1905 when management passed to the local authority, whose responsibilty it remained until closure
in 1976.
Since it was assumed that the Church had ownership of the school building, management then passed back to the Church in Wales. For the next 20 years, the school was used as a Village Hall until Crown Estates, the actual owner of the land according to a reverter clause in the original grant, notified the church of its intention to take the land back under the Reverter of Sites Act, 1987. Protracted arguments ensued until 2006 when the Church finally handed the now derelict site back to the Crown.
Despite petitions from villagers, Crown Estates have since refused to allow the villagers to purchase or even use the school, arguing that because they are a commercial organisation, they are not allowed to make charitable donations.
In 2007 villagers applied to the Ceredigion County Council to register the land as a Village Green under the Commons Act, 2006. The Council held a 3-day Public enquiry, but the village lost because of technicalities arising from a farmer's use of the school field.
At the time of writing, the battle for the ownership and use of this community facility continues.
All about Silian School, there is a sense of waste and loss. It is a poor reflection on Crown Estates that
they have not only retained property for which they have no obvious use (it is also of little
value, even for building) but allowed it to fall into disrepair.
Epilogue
The Roll of Honour was removed and relocated to St. Sulien's Church across the road in late
2007 thanks to local historian Jen Cairns who notes that all of the names on the board came back home safely after the war, and at least one person is still alive. At this time the building was also made secure from intruders by means of
galvanised steel fencing bolted to the walls and the owners have attempted to fence off the
grounds.
In 2009, Crown Estates finally agreed to lease the school to the village for a period of two years at a peppercorn rate of £200 p.a. The terms of the lease include a deadline to secure funding to purchase the school.
Responding to this opportunity, locals formed the Silian Old School Community Interest Company, which aimed to purchase the building and transform it into a community resource and heritage centre. In 2010, the Company stated its intention to enter a contract to buy the school outright, but the project website has not been updated since and the company does not appear to have filed any accounts since 2011. In August 2013, the school was still derelict and had deteriorated considerably, with holes appearing in the roof and the interior very damp despite the hot weather.
Sources
Cairns, J., Pers. Comm., 2011
Morgan, S., 'Fight is on for rights to school grounds' in the Cambrian News (Lampeter and
Tregaron Edition), Thursday 8th November, 2007.
Dyfed Family History Society, 'Schools and Colleges: National/Council School, Silian'
URL=http://www.dyfedfhs.org.uk/register/sac331.htm Accessed: 3/6/08
Ibid 'Schools and Colleges' URL=http://www.dyfedfhs.org.uk/register/sacindex.htm Accessed:
3/6/08
Silian Old School Community Project, 'Silian Old School" URL=http://www.silianoldschool.org.uk/ Accessed:
27/10/10 [dead link, mirrored at http://archive.is/0DdB]
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