Go-ahead for mix of new homes and restored heritage at Torquay's Stoodley Knowle site

Developers have been given the go-ahead to re-start work on a ‘very, very high quality development’ on the site of a former convent and school in Torquay.

A project to build 90 homes on the former Stoodley Knowle site stalled after a previous construction firm went into liquidation, leaving half-finished concrete blocks on the site. 

Now Ansteys Cove Development – based at Buckfast Abbey – has been given the green light to get the job finished. Its plans are slightly amended from those previously passed, but members of Torbay Council’s planning committee backed them unanimously.

Some neighbours have complained about a number of the homes already built on the site, and alterations are part of the latest plans. Permission has been given for the demolition, alteration and extension of existing buildings and construction of new buildings to provide 90 residential dwellings, which will be a mix of 22 houses and 68 apartments.

Ansteys Cove Development will pay half a million pounds towards local affordable housing projects as part of the package.

A recent aerial picture of the Stoodley Knowle site in Torquay (Image courtesy Torbay Council)

Cllr Adam Billings (Con, Churston with Galmpton) said he had been impressed by the proposals. “This is a very, very high quality development,” he said. “It doesn’t look anything like your standard ‘little boxes’ development. This is a totally different level of quality.”

Cllr Mike Fox (Lib Dem, Barton with Watcombe) said the lack of affordable housing in the development was understandable but frustrating. “It is important that we secure that £500,000,” he added.

Cllr Anna Tolchard (Con, St Peters with St Marys) went on: “It’s an impressive site and an extremely large site. I think what is proposed there – a mixture of modern dwellings alongside renovations on a historic site provides an unparalleled development.”

The committee also heard that a Grade Two star-listed medieval chapel on the site, known as the oratory, will be protected and preserved during the project.

The chapel is part of Stoodley Knowle’s long history.

During the First World War the site was a military hospital, where King George V and Queen Mary visited wounded soldiers.

Les Filles de la Croix bought the property and established a convent, opening the Stoodley Knowle School in 1925. It was described as an independent, non-selective Catholic school for girls aged up to 18, providing education inspired by Christian ideals.

The complex grew and the buildings on the site expanded, only for the school to close in 2015 due to a decline in pupil numbers.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Plymouth bought the 47-acre site in 2017 with the aim of protecting its heritage while sensitively developing the land.