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It is the end of an era as Oaklands Convent on Moss Lane will now be transformed into a 66-bed unit care home which will include specialist dementia facilities, bringing with it the creation of 55 jobs.

The care home plans have been on the cards since the convent closed its doors. Permission was granted in 2017 to extend the Edwardian building to create a 46-bedroomed facility. The building was finally demolished last month.

However, a meeting of South Ribble Borough Council’s planning committee heard that it had since been left to deteriorate to such an extent that its conversion was no longer viable and demolition was the only way forward.

The site of the former convent of The Sisters of Our Lady in Moss Lane Leyland has now been demolished to make way for a new care home

Historic England declined to list the building after an assessment in 2015, but planning committee member Coun Mary Green said that it was “with a heavy heart” that she was considering the application to bulldoze it.

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David Morse, the agent for applicant Corsa Construction, said at the time that the proposed home was much-needed given that the borough had one of the highest proportions of older residents in the region.

He said: “Health projections for the borough show a substantial increase in both dementia and mobility-related health issues, with increases of 87 and 68 percent respectively.

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This proposed care home will directly contribute to tackling these issues, with internal layouts designed specifically for both residential dementia care and residential care for the elderly.”

The building is thought to date back to 1910 and was previously occupied by the Poor Clare Order of nuns.

The last nuns to be resident there left in 2016, having bid an emotional farewell to the a 19th century, five-bedroom house following seven decades of service.

In that time they taught thousands of children in Leyland and played an important part including helping establish St Catherine’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Farington.

Sister Maria, one of the last two nuns to leave the convent nearly six years ago, said at the time that she was glad that the building was going to be kept “intact”.

Oaklands Convent: former convent building in Leyland demolished and ready for new care home