TELEVISION presenter and local historian Mark Olly has thrown his weight behind the campaign to save his former school.

Plans to knock down Stockton Heath Primary School and replace it with a new multi-million pound building were given the go ahead by the Executive Board of Warrington Borough Council last week.

But the presenter of the Granada series Lost Treasures says the building is one of the last of its kind remaining in the town and that an archaeological dig of the area has found something of 'significance'.

He said: "This school has been the centre of village life in Stockton Heath for nearly the past 100 years now.

"The school is a very good example of a turn of the century building. It is probably the last school of its type that is surviving in Warrington.

"It is immediately post Victorian, there are not many buildings from then still around."

It is believed that an archaeological dig took place in the school playground and sports pitch last year which has uncovered something of interest - but what was discovered there, is not yet known.

Mr Olly added: "First and foremost I would like to see the school I went to not demolished.

"Secondly I would like to see it restored and thirdly I would like the archaeology to be investigated."

Before the executive

board of the

council gave the go ahead for the new build, councillors on the committee heard that 70 per cent of those who were consulted over the proposals for Stockton Heath school wanted a new building and a council spokesman said the new build 'will provide them with a safe and modern environment in which to teach and learn'.