THE closure of a primary school whose history dates back more than 300 years has been confirmed.

Powys County Council agreed last year to close Whitton (Aided) School but it was granted a stay of execution after the governors lodged an objection with Welsh education minister Huw Lewis.

The Labour minister has now confirmed the east Radnorshire school, near Presteigne, is to close.

Graham Skipworth, chairman of Whitton's governing body, said it will ask its closure is delayed until August 2016 rather than this summer as suggested by the minister.

Whitton School opened in 1724 but traces its history back even further to 1703 when Dame Anna Child, the daughter of a wealthy local family, instructed in her 1703 will that £500 be put out to interest and secured for the maintenance of a schoolmaster to teach and instruct the youth of the parishes of Whitton and Pilleth.

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