North Reddish Infant And Junior School

North Reddish Infant and Junior School

Infants and junior school built in 1907 by the architects Cheers & Smith of Blackburn, constructed at a cost of just under £11,000. The building is mainly single storey in red brick under slate roofs. It comprises a junior school with an uneven H plan and stepped wings, and a separate infants block, linked by railings, walls and open-sided sheds (possibly originally bicycle sheds).

Exterior

The red brick is relieved by buff stone string courses at sill and lintel levels, stone keystones and toppings to gateposts and parapets. Roofs are topped with red ridge tiles ending in projecting decorative finials at gable ends. Multiple roof lines and tall chimney shafts are visible throughout. Gable ends have white plastered tops; one above the double-height main hall bears a decorated shield in relief and the date 1907, above which is a louvred spire with a tall slim slated roof. Entrance porches have widely overhanging gables supported on carved wooden consoles.

Windows are of two types: larger windows on the gables, some with keyed segmental arch tops and mullion and transom in wood with 3 or 6 lights above and 6 over 6 sashes below; smaller windows between have 6 over 6 sashes. A small block in the inner corner of the stepped cross-wing on the east side has a castellated parapet with stone dressings and a pyramidal roof. The two buildings are linked by low walls with stone copings topped with iron railings, and brick and stone gate piers (photographic evidence suggests these were once higher). The north-west corner of the west wing has a flat-roofed pre-fabricated extension comprising a single classroom, which is not of architectural interest.

Interior

The junior school has a central hall running east-west of double height with exposed dark wood trusses and clerestorey windows down each side and at each end. To each side are classrooms, library and lavatories. A free-standing stage is situated at the west end, beyond which is a corridor leading to the kitchen, further classrooms, stores, cloakrooms and in the north-west corner access to the classroom extension. At the east end a corridor leads to more classrooms and to the north the main entrance, headteacher's room and staff room.

On the east wall of the hall is a war memorial in glazed tiles, with the dates 1914 and 1919 at each side, above panels containing a coat of arms and a central panel listing "those who fell" and "those who returned", topped by a panel stating "North Reddish Council School", with a central cartouche carrying the words "The Great War" contained in a wreath.

The entrance reception area has a suspended ceiling; all other ceilings are original, with exposed wooden framing and trusses, some with decorative wall posts supported on moulded corbels. All classrooms are in original configuration with original panelled doors, glazed with small panes on the upper third, and half-height tiling in green and brown. Many rooms have remains of tiled fireplaces in the corner, and at least one fireplace survives intact with grate.

The infants block has a central hall running north-south, with the main entrance to the west and classrooms arranged on all sides. The architectural details are similar to those in the junior school.

History

The school was built as a council school in 1907, soon after North Reddish was subsumed into Stockport and at around the same time as other municipal buildings were being erected. It was apparently almost immediately pressed into service as a military hospital during the First World War, a connection recorded by the war memorial inside the school.