A former village school is set to be remodelled into homes with three more being built on its playground footprint.Under plans submitted this week the old school on Ormesby St Margaret's scenic village green will also have its 1960s extension and outbuildings knocked down.

A former village school is set to be remodelled into homes with three more being built on its playground footprint.

Under plans submitted this week the old school on Ormesby St Margaret's scenic village green will also have its 1960s extension and outbuildings knocked down.

If it gets planning permission its owners - Norwich Diocesan Board of Finance - hope to sell the site on to a builder to carry out the “sympathetic” conversion.

Parish council chairman Geoff Freeman said planners had been working carefully on the designs for some time to make sure nothing interfered with the character of the village green.

The school, which has stood at the corner of the green since 1845, will be converted into three maisonettes with three smaller properties built within its large footprint which Mr Freeman hoped would be “attractively priced.”

Its days looked numbered when it closed as a school in the late 1980s but the Diocese allowed the parish to use the building for the benefit of the community for the last 20 years - during which time it has given stalwart service to muscle-flexing fitness fans, newborn babies who went there for their weekly weigh-in and many other user groups.

A lack of parking and the fact the building was starting to show its age were among problems that had brought it to this point, Mr Freeman added.

The new houses will be built using the same red brick, with plenty of provision for parking so as not to interfere with neighbours.

The school was built by Lacons - of brewing fame - originally for the education of boys under 12.