New Developments

New Sports Pitches

On July 22 Wealden Council’s planning committee granted approval for St Bede’s Senior School to build three football pitches and a cricket pitch on land behind the School’s all weather pitch.

The application was made after a year long consultation process between the School and Arlington Parish Council, Dicker Residents Association and the villagers of Upper Dicker. Both Arlington Parish Council and the DRA supported the application and helped form the final application with helpful comments and insights. The application was cited by councillors at the meeting as an excellent example of a community working together.

Work will begin on the new pitches within the next few months.

To download a plan of the proposed pitches Click Here

New Boarding Houses

Work started on the new Boarding houses on Monday 5 July 2010 .

The new houses are planned to provide 136 student beds, and will replace accommodation in the chalets of Stud house, in Camberlot Hall and part of Dorms House. They represent a major improvement in the quality of boys’ accommodation, not an increase in boarding or school numbers.

The boarding houses are being built by the Keir Group. The first house to be completed will become Stud House and the girls from Crossways House will move into the second house. The boys from Camberlot will then move into what is currently Crossways House, next to the girls of Dorter House.

The houses were designed to improve the appearance of the approach to the village when viewed from Michelham Priory Road. The design is environmentally sensitive with solar panels to provide the bulk of the hot water needed and ground source heat pumps to provide the entire heating requirement except on the very coldest of winter days.

Progress Report

For the latest pictures click on the Gallery at the top of the page.

By the 27th July the two sides of Stud yard had been cleared and the debris removed from the site(see top images). In the main car park work is well underway in installing the pipework for the environmentally friendly ground source heating system to be used in the new Boarding Houses ( see side image)
By the end of August the drilling in the car park was finished, although some surfacing work remained. The remodelled entrance to the Car park was almost finished. Work on the buildings foundations, and the outline of some walls, can be seen on the lower picture to the right.
By the start of term the car park was again usable, and by the end of the second week pipework was being installed under what will become the ground floor of the new building.
Early October saw the arrival of a Hydraulic crane on the site, which was used to lift pre-fabricated floor panels into place. The large excavation, to form the Plant room, has taken shape and the heavy concrete work is nearly finished. However the very heavy rain does give it the appearance of an indoor swimming pool at present.
By Mid-October the skyline was dominated by a large tower crane, which will remain on site for the duration of the construction period. External brick cladding has, in some places, now reached window level. The second house has taken shape and floor panels have started to appear.

By early March the steelwork for the second house was in place, and the external walls were begining to appear. The first house had concrete stairways installed, and the first floor floor slabs were in place, leaving the position of the central atrium easily seen. Hidden away from view, the underground plant room had been transformed.

By the end of the Summer Term the roof structure of Stud House was finished and the traditional Topping-out ceremony held. Over the Summer the main car park, which had varied from mud-bath to dust-bowl at regular intervals, was paved, transforming both its appearance and practicality. By the time the Autumn Term started the exterior of Stud House was almost finished, with windows in place and the exterior cladding being applied. Crossways roof was almost complete, with the same detail in the tiling as appears on many of the Victorian roofs of the original Bottomley Estate.