Akhurst School (Jesmond Cottage) And Gas Lamp At Door

Akhurst School, also known as Jesmond Cottage, is a house that has been converted into a school, dated 1831 on the rainwater head and built for Matthew Anderson. It is constructed of sandstone ashlar with a roof made of graduated Lakeland slate and features an irregular plan in the Tudor style. The building has two storeys and five bays, with the right lower bay being set back.

The first bay includes a two-storey extruded porch that has a Tudor-arched 12-panelled door in a moulded surround, topped with a drip mould supported by leaf brackets. The ground floor features a frieze with Tudor flowers. The windows have glazing bars set in hollow-chamfered surrounds, with a narrow Tudor-arched sash above the door and cross windows in the gabled bays. The bay between the gables contains two small sashes below a tall window with two cusped lights. The right end bay has simpler windows. All windows are adorned with label moulds, and there is a cyma moulded plinth, except for the right end bay. The first-floor string steps down in the third bay to the sill of the tall window.

The porch has a corbel table and there are continuous friezes between the gables, with ogee finials on the shafts at the gable peaks. The steeply-pitched roofs are topped with massive panelled and corniced chimneys of two and three stages. The rainwater head on the right return is marked "MA 1831."

Inside, there is a cantilevered stair with a curtail and wreathed handrail, featuring turned balusters with a cord-moulded lower section. A floral stucco frieze decorates the room to the right of the door. The principal ground-floor room has a ceiling with moulded ribs on Gothic brackets, a Gothic chimney piece made of painted sandstone with carved spandrels and a Tudor arch, and a cast iron Gothic grate. Many original eight-panelled doors in Tudor-arched surrounds remain.

To the left of the door, there is a cast iron gas lamp with an octagonal base. The lamp features acanthus buds that clasp two fluted sections, forming a domed top, and has a square lampholder with a high domed finial.