Former National School And Schoolmaster'S House

NZ 23 SW SPENNYMOOR CHURCH STREET (East side) Byers Green

5/35 (inset) Former National school and schoolmaster's house GV II

National school and schoolmaster's house. Dated 1852 over house window. Possibly by G.Y. Wall, architect of Church of St. Peter, Byers Green (q.v.). Coursed squared sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and quoins; Welsh slate roof with stone gable copings and ridge. Jacobean style. 2-storey, 3-bay house has first bay projecting under front gable; chamfered stone surround to renewed door in second bay under relieving arch; similar treatment to windows, with 2 lights in outer bays and one over door, the lower blocked and the upper with glazing bars; late C19 sash over door. Right end window on first floor breaks eaves under gable; low-relief date in panel in left bay gable peak. Steeply-pitched roof has copings on curved kneelers. Right return has external stack with offsets; chimney removed. Right return continuous with school attached to rear of house: one storey, 2 wide bays, with central buttress flanked by gabled blocked windows breaking eaves. Rear gable of school has tracery in high 2-centred-arched window. Left -return has one-storey cross wing to school, with paired 8-pane sashes.

House empty at time of survey; school used as church hall.

Unsigned plans are similar in type of handwriting to those of Church of St. Peter. It is likely that a professional architect would have signed them; St. Peter was designed by a 'land agent'.

Source: Durham County Record Office E/SB P8.

Listing NGR: NZ2255033780