A FORMER church is being given a new lease of life and will open soon as a Phoenix Montessori Nursery. Work started before Christmas on transforming the United Reformed Church building in Long Sutton into an imaginative base for 26 youngsters between the

A FORMER church is being given a new lease of life and will open soon as a Phoenix Montessori Nursery.

Work started before Christmas on transforming the United Reformed Church building in Long Sutton into an imaginative base for 26 youngsters between the ages of two to five years.

Buying the building ended a long search for school Principal Clare Harris who had been looking for suitable premises for several years.

Mrs Harris who also has a school in Terrington St Clement said the church had been closed for several months when she decided to have a look around the property.

She said: "It was just the look of it that attracted me, it has quite a striking facade and our other school is in a former Oddfellows Hall. This type of building seems to lend itself to accommodating large groups of children.

"I thought it was a nice building but the agents told me it had been sold. Several months later they contacted me to say the sale had fallen through and it was back on the market."

Work is now in progress with central heating having been installed and all the basics completed. There will be a new toilet block and the kitchen area is being divided into two - one for the adults and one for the children. An outside play area is also planned.

Mrs Harris said: "There is some space under the building at one end and we hope we can use that for physical play when it is raining outside and another little space which could be used by the children as a den."

With the Terrington nursery "bursting at the seams" Mrs Harris is thankful she spotted the building. She said: "Over the years I had not seen anything which seemed right. We had looked at plots with a view to building ourselves and we looked at industrial type units but we wanted something with a bit of character and this is it."

The school will open as soon as work has finished and when Mrs Harris has recruited the appropriate staff.