Buyer found for North Yorkshire private school site amid sector turmoil
Queen Margaret’s School in Escrick has a new owner, while Moorlands School in Leeds has become the latest former fee-paying establishment to hit the market.
Sanderson Weatherall, acting on behalf of joint administrators from FRP Advisory, was instructed to offer for sale the freehold property of Queen Margaret’s last August.
The buyer is Escrick Holdings, a Bradford-registered company formed earlier this year. SW told Place Yorkshire it has no insight into the buyer’s intentions for the property.
Queen Margaret’s is set within 39 acres of mature landscaped grounds, next to the Escrick Park Estate. Escrick itself sits between Selby and York, around the A19.
According to SW’s 2025 sale particulars, the site comprises a grade two-listed former country house and a variety of ancillary buildings, including classroom and dormitory blocks.
Sports facilities include indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a sports hall/gymnasium, a floodlit astroturf pitch, as well as squash and tennis courts.
The Rightmove listing set the volume of buildings at 175,000 sq ft.
Neil Bestwick, partner in SW’s asset advisory and recovery division, said at that time: “We are exploring the potential for a resurrected education-based use but also expect to see expressions of interest for alternative uses, including residential, leisure, and care, for which the property would be suited, subject, of course, to planning and other consents.”
Offers had been invited at £5m.
The private education sector is in a state of flux, with the change in tax status introduced by government named by some observers as the biggest factor in schools choosing to close down.
Place North West has recently covered school closures and potential sales in North Wales and sought-after Alderley Edge. Closer to home, Moorlands School is now on the market.
Situated off Fox Hill Drive in the Leeds suburb of Weetwood, Moorlands is being marketed by Newmark. With 31,000 sq ft across several buildings, the centrepiece a Victorian edifice, the 3.62-acre site is being sold freehold. The school closed last year.
