STEPPING Stones special school is planning to open the doors of Undershaw to its pupils in time for the new academic year.

Haslemere MP Jeremy Hunt will officially open the building on September 9.

Restoration and building work at Undershaw, the former home of Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle at Hindhead, is due to be completed next month and, pending planning permission, the grounds completed over the summer before term starts.

The school, currently housed in a former church in Tower Road, Hindhead, plans to retain its current premises and use nearby Undershaw, on Portsmouth Road, for an upper school and post-16 education.

A school spokesman said: “The transition to Undershaw will then be seen, as in any other school, as a rite of passage to their next level of education. In addition, we will be looking to start a family support service which would most appropriately be based at Tower Road.”

The lower school pupils at Tower Road will also use new facilities at Undershaw, including for music, science, sport and swimming.

Haslemere museum is planning to mount an exhibition about the school and its acquisition and conversion of Undershaw, from June 2-25. It will faeature mixed media work by the children, the history of both sites, as well as the plans for Conan Doyle’s home.