Former Infant School Building and Attached Boundary Walls and Railings and Gatepiers and Arched Entrance Gateway at Former Durnford High School

Former Infant School Building with Attached Boundary Walls, Railings, Gatepiers and Arched Entrance Gateway

This is the surviving infant school building from the former Durnford High School site on the west side of Rectory Street, Middleton. Built between 1908 and 1910, it was designed by Edgar Wood and J.H. Sellers. The structure is of brick with Portland stone dressings and a reinforced concrete flat roof.

The building comprises a single storey range, originally forming the stem section of a T-plan complex. It features a central hall with classrooms positioned to the north, south and east sides. The six-bay central section is accompanied by a lower three-bay end range to the east. The south elevation displays tall multi-pane windows beneath a coped parapet. At the east end of the hall stands an elaborate tower-like chimney with pilastered corners. The exterior includes a taller inner wall with render finish that defines the extent of the original central hall.

The interior is thought to retain original doors and partitions, though it was not fully inspected at the time of listing.

The attached boundary walls enclose the front and south sides of the former school site. The main frontage wall is of red brick with a thin stone coping, flanked by sections of low plinth walling with intermediate piers and ornamental cast iron railings featuring decorative upper panels. At the south-east corner is an entrance gateway with angled ashlar gatepiers and ramped cappings. Plain railings on plinth walling extend westwards to a taller rendered side entrance wall. This incorporates an arched entrance gateway with a pair of cast iron gates and encloses a flight of covered stone steps leading up to the former playground area.

Durnford Street School was one of two pioneering Municipal Schools built by the local Education Committee following the Balfour Education Act of 1902 to establish new standards of hygiene and teaching practice. Designed to accommodate 1000 infant, junior and senior children, it represents an innovative and stylistically-advanced school complex by an architect of national repute. The Junior and Senior School areas were demolished following consent granted in May 2002. The surviving building demonstrates Edgar Wood's pioneering exploration of reinforced concrete and flat roof construction.