Mount St Mary’s: Firm behind closed private schools on Yorkshire border owed £10m at time collapse
A company behind two private schools on the outskirts of Yorkshire owed just over £10m when it shut down earlier this year, recently released financial documents have revealed.
Documents posted to Companies House show that the firm behind Mount St Mary’s College and its associated prep school, Barlborough Hall, owed a total of £10,211,218 at the time of appointing administrators.
Mount St Mary’s, the parent company behind the Derbyshire-based schools, appointed administrators in August of this year, citing a decade of persistent financial difficulties.
Administrators are now undertaking efforts to sell the buildings and grounds of both schools, which include a Grade II listed chapel and residential dwellings at the college, and a Grade I listed building at Barlborough Hall.
A valuation undertaken in 2021 estimated the properties to be worth between £4m and £8m. The most recently posted document from administrators, however, described the value of the properties as “inherently uncertain”.
The report states: “Given the nature of the properties, complexities in respect of their makeup and title, listed status of certain buildings and the fact that the Schools have ceased trading, the true value of each property is inherently uncertain, and the actual value will be dictated by the marketing process.”
Around £4.7m of Mount St Mary’s debt is owed to the Jesuits in Britain, the group which founded both schools.
The Jesuits in Britain founded Mount St Mary's College in 1842, later opening Barlborough Hall in 1939. The group directly operated the schools until 2006, when governance was handed over to a separate, independent trust.
At the time, the Jesuits gifted the school’s land, buildings, and investments to the new governing body, along with an additional cash sum of £7.1m. The group had also provided over £3m in loans to the new trust since 2015.
Around £186,000 is also owed to former employees of the school. According to an administrator’s report, the school had 187 employees at the date of its entering administration
A separate firm has since been appointed to assist with the employee redundancy process and subsequent claims from employees to the Insolvency Service.
Documents posted by administrators also revealed further details around the reason for the closure of the schools. They said: “Historically, the Schools operated successfully, with student numbers combined across the Schools at around 660 in 2015. However, numbers declined steadily in subsequent years, reaching a low of approximately 430 students in September 2019.”
They said that while numbers had somewhat recovered, they remained below the estimated breakeven level of 600 students. The introduction of VAT on school fees and rising utility costs were also cited amongst pressures faced by the schools, as well as reduced income brought on by the pandemic.
Last month, in events first reported by the Sheffield Tribune, Derbyshire Police said that it was “investigating an allegation of two non-recent sexual offences reported to have taken place at Mount St Marys College”. Derbyshire Police told The Yorkshire Post there had been no update on the case.