Former National School and Schoolmaster's House is a Grade II listed building in the County Durham local planning authority area, England. First listed on 14 June 1988. School, house.

Former National School and Schoolmaster's House

WRENN ID
sombre-soffit-plum
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
County Durham
Constituency
Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor MP: Alan Strickland (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
14 June 1988
Type
School, house
Address
Former National School and Schoolmaster's House, Church Street, Spennymoor
OS grid reference
NZ 225 337
Coordinates
54.69856, -1.65164
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The former National School and schoolmaster's house, dated 1852, is located on Church Street in Byers Green. It is possibly designed by G.Y. Wall, who also designed the nearby Church of St. Peter. The building is constructed from coursed squared sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and quoins, topped with a Welsh slate roof featuring stone gable copings and a ridge.

This Jacobean-style structure is two stories high with three bays. The first bay projects under the front gable, and there is a chamfered stone surround to a renewed door in the second bay, which is set under a relieving arch. The windows have a similar stone treatment, with two lights in the outer bays and one above the door; the lower window is blocked, while the upper has glazing bars. A late 19th-century sash window is located over the door.

On the first floor, the right end window breaks the eaves under the gable, and there is a low-relief date panel at the peak of the left bay gable. The steeply-pitched roof features copings on curved kneelers. The right side of the building has an external stack with offsets, although the chimney has been removed. The right return connects to the school, which is attached to the rear of the house. This one-story section has two wide bays and a central buttress, with gabled blocked windows that break the eaves. The rear gable of the school includes tracery in a high two-centred-arched window. The left return features a one-story cross wing of the school, with paired eight-pane sash windows.

At the time of the survey, the house was empty, while the school was being used as a church hall.

Local climate

Former National School and Schoolmaster's House receives an average of 840 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 56% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 92% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 45 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 86% of listed buildings. Of these, 27 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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Nearby listed buildings

  1. Byers Green War Memorial Grade II 30 m
  2. Walls, Piers and Gates to West of Former School and Church of St. Peter Grade II 41 m
  3. Church of St Peter Grade II 61 m
  4. The Old Rectory Grade II 76 m
  5. The Hall with Outbuilding, and Piers and Wall Attached Grade II 642 m
  6. Garden Wall to North of the Hall Grade II 708 m
  7. Garden and Yard Walls at Old Park Hall Farmhouse Grade II 899 m
  8. Old Park Hall Farmhouse and Farmbuildings and Wall Grade II 989 m
  9. Whitworth Parish Church Grade II 1.4 km
  10. Rose Arbour to West of Whitworth Hall Grade II 1.4 km