School leavers set to restore friary

A pre-Reformation Dominican friary is being restored and converted for use as a youth hostel in an ambitious project in Beverley, East Yorkshire.
The site of the friary is close to Beverley Minster. and the preservation scheme was Launched recently by Mr George Odey, a former MP for the town, who is chairman of the Beverley Friary Preservation Trust.
Work on the run-down friary building is being carried out by teams of school-leavers under the Government financed Job Creation programme. So far the interior has been restored to the shape it had as a friary, and the roof has been renewed.
The timbers have been treated and the floor has been reconstructed.
A grant has been made by the Historic Buildings Council to cover half the cost of repair work. It has been estimated that about £65,000 will be needed to restore the building to its original form as a friary. A further £60,000 then has to be found to carry out the conversions for modern-day use, as a youth hostel and residential centre for school. church and industry study groups. So far £18.000 has been raised by the Preservation Trust, but according to Mr Chris Dawson, Secretary of the Trust, the local authority has been allow to give financial support.
"An application has been made to Beverley Borough Council — who are in possession of the friary building — for a grant of £10,000 a year for three years," he said. "We do not know yet when the application will be heard. We need the support of the local authority before we can get any money from a number of other grantaiding bodies."
A spokesman for the Beverley Borough Council said that the Trust's application would be considered at the next Finance Committee meeting. But, he said, it was likely to face a rough passage.
"There is a feeling in the town that the friary is not worth the amount of money that is being asked for. There is some intrinsic merit in the fact that it is rare to have the remains of a Dominican friary of this age. And to develop it as a youth hostel is a good idea in principle. But it is possible to build a youth hostel for a lot less than a quarter of a million pounds," the spokesman added.
The freehold on the building is owned by an engineering firm which used it for storage, and has been leased to the Presevation Trust.