Kit PetersMYNYDDBACH: Drone images show former Daniel James school reduced to rubble as site cleared for new Bishop Vaughan
The former Daniel James school in Mynydd-bach has been largely flattened, new drone images reveal, as contractors press on with clearing the site for a new school.
The aerial pictures show whole sections of the long-disused buildings reduced to rubble, with diggers working across ground that was classrooms only months ago.
Heaps of brick and twisted timber sit where parts of the school once stood, while a handful of structures remain partly standing, their windows stripped out.
Diggers work across the cleared ground where school buildings once stood. Image: Nicky ThomasDemolition of the site, off Llangyfelach Road, began in early February, with the work jointly funded by Swansea Council and the Welsh Government.
Tom Prichard Contracting Ltd was appointed to carry out the clearance, which was expected to take around six months.
The neighbouring former Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Tirdeunaw is being demolished as part of the same programme.
Excavators demolish the former Mynyddbach school site (Image: Stuart Sampson)Once the ground is cleared, the council plans to build a new home for Bishop Vaughan Catholic School on the site.
The new school would house up to 1,400 pupils, including a 200-strong sixth form, and is being funded under the Welsh Government’s Sustainable Communities for Learning programme.
Bishop Vaughan would relocate from its current site in Clase, just under a mile away, with pupils and staff staying put until the new building is ready.
The project has been agreed in principle but still needs further approvals before construction can begin, with an opening targeted for around 2029-30.
The council is understood to be contributing around 15% of the cost of the new school, with the Welsh Government funding the rest.
That contribution is expected to be offset through a land exchange with the Archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia, which runs the Catholic school. Under the arrangement, the council would take on the existing Bishop Vaughan site in Clase.
The freed-up Clase site could in turn open the door to housing or other development, helping the council recoup its share — though no such plans have yet been put forward.
For the community, the demolition draws a line under a site that has stood largely empty for more than a decade.
The history of the site stretches back nearly 70 years.
Mynyddbach School opened in 1957 as an all-girls secondary, providing single-sex education for more than 50 years.
In 2001 it merged with the all-boys Penlan Comprehensive to form the mixed-sex Daniel James Community School.
Daniel James was placed in special measures in 2010 after a critical inspection, and closed two years later in 2012.
Its closure was fiercely opposed at the time, with pupils, parents and residents marching in protest at the prospect of children having to travel across the city to school.
The buildings have stood empty ever since, becoming a magnet for anti-social behaviour, with firefighters called to a suspected arson at the site last year.
Council leaders have framed the clearance as making good on a long-standing pledge to restore secondary education to the area.
The wider work forms part of the council’s £400m schools investment programme, which it says brings its total committed spending on Swansea schools to almost £1bn.
Demolition is expected to continue through the coming months before the site is prepared for the next stage.
Related stories from Swansea Bay News
Bulldozers move in as demolition starts at former Daniel James school
How the clearance began in February.
Work on new Bishop Vaughan school could start early next year
The plans for the replacement school on the site.
