10 lost schools to close in Wolverhampton, Dudley, Walsall, Sandwell and Staffordshire

In some of your most formative years, your time at school can be your most memorable, with memories from inside those buildings, including classrooms, theatres, gyms and dining areas fresh for many years after you leave.

While many of these buildings still stand today and carry those memories, there are just as many that have closed and, in many cases, been torn down and the land given a new purpose.

The buildings may be gone, but the memories still linger for those who walked through the doors, so here are some of those schools that have closed but still live on in the memory.

1) Northicote High School in Wolverhampton

Northicote Secondary School on Northwood Park Road in Bushbury opened in 1951 as a modern secondary school and became a bilateral school with a grammar stream in 1957 before becoming a comprehensive school called Northicote High School in September 1968.

It was the first school in the UK to be condemned as failing by Ofsted in 1993, but within two years it was transformed into a successful school.

The school was informed in 2007 that it was being merged with Pendeford Business and Enterprise College to form an academy, which took place in 2010 and saw the school merge with Pendeford Business and Enterprise College to become North East Wolverhampton Academy.

The combined school was originally sited over both of the former schools before moving to a newly built and refurbished campus in September 2014 on the former Pendeford Business and Enterprise College site.

The Northicote campus was later demolished in 2018.

2) Parkfield High School in Wolverhampton

Parkfield High School was a secondary school in the Blakenhall area of ​​Wolverhampton which opened in April 1962.

The school served the boroughs of Lanesfield, Woodcross and Ettingshall and saw extensions built in the 1970s and around 1980 the main building was completely refurbished due to mining subsidence.

It was succeeded by South Wolverhampton and Bilston Academy in 2009, with the closure of Parkfield High School in August of the same year as the school’s operations moved to Bilston.

The building remains in place and is now the Lawnswood Campus, a landmark campus dedicated to promoting inclusion and positive behavior in safe, secure, child-centered, positive and nurturing environments.

3) Black Country UTC in Walsall

Black Country UTC was a university technical college in Bloxwich which was sponsored by the University of Wolverhampton and Walsall College, while Siemens acted as the main business partner.

It opened in September 2011 and was the second university technical college to open in England as part of the university technical colleges programme.