College sold for over £2m

Wansfell College in Theydon Bois has been sold to a residential property developer.

An offer on the Piercing Hill property has been accepted by consultants Lambert Smith Hampton. It comes three weeks after the company had to re-market the building after initial offers fell through late last year.

Details of the buyer cannot yet be confirmed although Lambert Smith Hampton's head of agency Stuart Mowle said: "It's a private development company, and we should complete the deal in six to eight weeks. We were quoting a figure of £2.25m, but the offer we have accepted is in excess of that."

The company has received three offers since the property was re-marketed, all from different parties to those who expressed an interest when the building was first put on the market last autumn. All were seeking to convert the building into apartments.

Mr Merle says the property market has improved over the last six months, after a period of uncertainty provoked by rising interest rates.

Former Wansfell College governor John Rapley said: "It was a college with an international reputation for excellence. It's a grave shame a valuable asset will be lost to the community in Essex. And there's five-and-a-half acres of lovely gardens. It would be a great shame if that became a mass of concrete as part of Mr Prescott's M11 corridor."

The institution was closed last August as part of cost-cutting measures by Essex County Council, which also shut Theydon Bois Youth Centre. The moves sparked local outrage.

Friends of the college called the decision "barbaric", but county council lifelong learning portfolio holder Bonnie Hart said the college had been recording a deficit in recent years and funding was no longer available to continue supporting residential education.

Janet Whitehouse, former county councillor for Epping and Theydon Bois, said: "When Wansfell College was closed the county council expected to sell it by April 2005.

"I kept in touch with developments and over the months was given the names of three organisations asthe expected purchaser. All fell through.

"I've received the new advertising from the agents.

"They are still giving the location of Wansfell College as Little Gregories Lane, off Piercing Hill, opposite Theydon Bois Golf Course. Perhaps prospective purchasers can't find it."

The property was built in 1871 as a residential house but was converted by Essex County Council into an adult education college in 1945.