PLANNING chiefs at Warrington are studying proposals to convert a former school house, built in memory of two children who died tragically more than 160 years ago, into a three-bedroomed house.
The building – known as The Manna House – is in Warrington Road, Penketh and dates from 1860.
In recent years it has been used as a function room.
The building originally opened in January 1862 and was known as Penketh Infants School. It was commissioned by local residents Robert Gaskell, of Penketh House, and John Naylor, a joiner.
They built it in memory of their children, Margaret Anne Gaskell, aged 8 who died October 1859 in a riding accident and James Naylor aged 13 who died February 1860.
It was seen as an option for less privileged children and cost parents a penny a week for their child’s attendance.
In 1890, after Robert Gaskell and John Naylor had passed away, the building was donated by Mr Gaskell’s wife to St Mary’s Mission Church
In 1908 the school closed its doors when it became too small for the population of Penketh and a new larger school opened on Stocks Lane. From then on the building was known as St Mary’s Institute.
After a refurbishment in 1985 St Paul’s Church, which stands on the site of the now demolished St Mary’s Church, ran a competition to find a new name for the building and from then it became known as The Manna House with ‘Manna from Heaven’ being the winning entry.
Then it was used by the church as a meeting house and private hire function venue until 2014 when St Paul’s Church took the decision to sell the venue to help contribute to the new church building fund.
It stood unused for almost two years until local residents, Andrew and Jade Mulholland bought it.
Since then they have used it as a small, intimate function room available for private hire.
Now, however, Mr Mulholland is seeking planning permission to convert the property into a three-bedroom dwelling. The scheme would involve demolition of a single-storey rear extension.
