Futuristic loft-style homes are being born in a 187-year-old former school building.

The smart apartments have been created in the heart of Bingley, in a school building made redundant under the Bradford Schools shake-up.

And the estate agent marketing the conversions at the former Bingley Church of England First School has already been inundated with scores of inquiries about the homes.

Some £1.5 million is being ploughed into converting the Grade II listed building into a dozen unique apartments and mews homes. The building closed as a school in July 1999, having opened as the National School in 1814.

The homes are currently being marketed at prices from an exclusive £132,500 but some slightly smaller ones - set to be completed by early next year - are expected to be available from about £100,000.

Dozens of people, including some former pupils, took a look round the Park School Mews development's show home when it opened its doors to the public for the first time at the weekend.

They were treated to a tour of a spacious, two-bedroom, partly open-plan apartment in which many of the school's original features - including its wooden timbers and flooring, exposed stone and brick walls and ventilation pipes - have been preserved by developer MP Burke (Properties) Ltd.

Company director Michael Burke said two of the homes in the first phase of the Park Road development, just yards from Bingley Station, had already been sold with another three apartments reserved by would-be purchasers.

Paul Wheildon, senior manager of the Bradford & Bingley, Renton & Renton estate agents, said: "There's been a huge amount of interest already and we've sent out well over 150 invitations to view just from the inquiries we've had.

"There hasn't really been anything that offers proper American loft-style homes in this area."

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