Burnley College Adult Education Centre

BURNLEY

SD8433SW BANK PARADE 906-1/10/10 (East side) 29/09/77 Burnley College Adult Education Centre (Formerly Listed as: BANK PARADE (East side) Old Grammar School)

GV II

Grammar school, now adult education centre. 1873-4. By William Waddington (dated 1873 over doorway); enlarged 1901 and 1934. Sandstone ashlar, steeply-pitched slate roof with fishscale bands and red cockscomb ridge tiles. PLAN: essentially a hall-and-crosswing plan, with the main hall-range on a north-south axis, the crosswing at the north end, a stair-turret coupled with a porch in the angle between these, and a smaller wing parallel to the north side of the other. Gothic style. EXTERIOR: mostly 2 storeys, plus a short tower, in a strongly asymmetrical composition focused on a projected 2-storey 5-sided stair-turret which has a short 2-stage octagonal tower above and behind it, with the gable of the wing to the left and a gabled 2-storey porch to the right. A chamfered plinth, moulded sillbands and various stepped and interrupted drip-bands to most parts. The porch, which has a short angle-buttress to the right terminating in a gablet, has a 2-centred arched doorway in a chamfered and moulded square-headed surround, double board doors with ornamental strap hinges, carved spandrels, an elaborately carved plaque with banners lettered "GRAMMAR / SCHOOL / 1873", and a hood-mould stepped over this with an elongated return on the right terminating in a figured stop caricaturing a schoolmaster; and a narrow triangular oriel at 1st floor. The projected 5-sided stair-turret to the left has small lancets at ground floor, and a deep offset to the set-back upper floor which has narrow transomed windows with arched lights below and quatrefoils above, that to the front set in a raised gableted surround with a finial in the form of a fantastic beast. The tower behind likewise has a set-back upper stage, octagonal with cross-windows in the cardinal sides, a machicolated parapet with gablets, and a pyramidal roof with a weather vane finial. The principal feature of the gable of the wing to the left is an oriel window which has an elaborately carved and moulded base, 2-centred arched lights with

blank-shield aprons, and a brattished parapet with a central gablet which has a finial in the form of a fantastic beast. The hall range to the right has mullion-and-transom windows on both floors, those at 1st floor with 4-centred arched lights. The lower extension at the north end has (inter alia) a wide 2-window gable and a splayed porch continued to the left, with a hipped roof. The rear is in simpler style, with mullion-and-transom windows, a gabled 2-storey turret, and various later extensions. INTERIOR: main school halls at 1st floor of main range and wing, with arch-braced roofs; large room at ground floor of main range with Gothic-panelled wooden partition.

Listing NGR: SD8423133032