Work started in July 2026 to repair a timber-framed barn and a stone chapel at St Michael’s Place, just outside of Warwick’s town centre.
Our Heritage Enterprise funding, totalling £2.9million, is enabling the 15th and 16th-century buildings to be sympathetically converted into one and two-bedroom homes.
Specialist archaeological investigations are also taking place to better understand below-ground remains of the site’s earliest structures. These date back to when the site cared for people with leprosy, first recorded in 1275.
A Heritage Community Assistant is engaging the public while the site is being transformed. Volunteering opportunities, events and activities for local people and schools will unlock the site’s stories and the heritage craft skills involved in the restoration. Interpretation panels will be installed to explain the history of the site, which will also have further residential development, parking and landscaping.
The project is a partnership between West Midlands Heritage and Warwick District Council and responds to two urgent issues: finding a viable use for empty historic buildings and providing more affordable rent homes.
Corinne Brazier, Chair of West Midlands Heritage, said: “We are delighted to have reached this important point in the delivery stage of our project at St Michael’s Place, Warwick, after much hard work from our dedicated team and incredible support from the local community. We are now able to ensure that St Michael’s Place will return to providing homes, continuing a thread in time that stretches back for 800 years on this site!”
