Hexham Community-Led Housing
The Hexham Middle School site, owned by Northumberland County Council, has been out of use for education purposes since the summer of 2021, although the Fellside and Gatehouse buildings have since been rented to the BBC for filming a children’s series.
In 2025 the site was given outline planning approval for mixed housing and an ‘extra-care’ facility, although the planning application excluded the above mentioned listed/curtilage-listed buildings.
Hexham Community-Led Housing, Communities CAN, Independent Creative Living and New Roots have all expressed an interest in community-led (collaborative or co-housing) housing on the site, with a mix of tenures; we were involved in NCC’s “market testing” interviews, and, in November 2025, gave our reaction to potential new uses for the listed buildings via the NEPO website. We have now come together with a detailed proposal for a part of the HMS site – including the Fellside building and areas to its north and south for an integrated housing and arts hub for the town.
Hexham has a known need for affordable and social housing which continues to grow (Housing Needs Surveys of 2016 and 2022). There is considerable interest for an arts hub in the town, and we believe our idea of combining this need and aspiration will serve Hexham well, and may be more financially viable than a standalone arts hub.
We would like to see a more innovative housing offer in Hexham including the concept of collaborative/co housing for intergenerational living. Enabling the development of housing for an intentional community of creative people who can actively contribute to the life of the new community, can add to wellbeing and mitigate some care needs.
A model such as is used for “A House for Artists” in London, https://hdawards.org/scheme/a-house-for-artists/ could be used here – a community arts space, + workspace + apartments, where residents contribute to the public offer in return for affordable rents.
For the HMS site, we propose the acquisition of a parcel of land lying between Fellside and Gatehouse in order to develop Fellside as a creative community hub offering workspaces, living spaces, exhibition facilities, etc and the Gatehouse as a more regular community hub with living accommodation on the 1st floor. A range of mixed tenure, new build housing will surround the site, leaving the grassed area as an environmental feature.
Directors of HCLH bring a wealth of experience in project development and management: Forestry Commission, Design Works Gateshead; New Roots has experience of Community Share Offers with Yorspace. Funding and an alliance with a Registered Provider is also key. Funding sources could include brownfield funding via the North East Mayoral Strategic Authority, the Heritage Revival Fund via the Architectural Heritage Fund, Octopus Energy’s Zero bills homes, Arts Council and National Lottery funding, and the charity Create Arts.