Royal Grammar School (Old School)

Royal Grammar School (Old School)

Grammar school and former headmaster's house, built in 1851 by the architects Sharpe and Paley. The building was extended considerably and sympathetically during the rest of the 19th century with additional buildings designed by Paley and Austin, including a four-bay block to the right dated 1887.

The main block is constructed of snecked sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. It presents a picturesquely symmetrical seven-bay facade with the entrance positioned in the fifth bay and a tower to the left. Behind the tower, set at right angles to the main block, stands the former headmaster's house.

The main block rises to two storeys above a basement. To the left of the entrance, three low four-centred arches (now blocked) indicate what was originally a covered playground. The upper storey forms an attic with six coped gables, the central one over the entrance being notably higher and wider and carrying a crown finial. The entrance doorway features a two-centred moulded arch beneath a hoodmould; on either side stand small windows with cusped heads, and above is an ornate niche containing a statue of the young Queen Victoria. The main ground-floor windows—four to the left and two to the right—have three arch-headed lights and a transom under a square hoodmould and relieving arch. The first-floor window above the doorway contains four lights of equal height with a square niche above. The remaining windows feature three arch-headed lights with the central light raised higher. A string course runs beneath all the windows. To the left of a strongly projecting buttress rises a square four-storey battlemented tower with a pyramidal roof. The tower's windows correspond to those in the main block at basement, ground floor and attic level, with the addition of a paired arch-headed window in the top storey.

The former headmaster's house is also picturesquely asymmetrical, comprising two storeys with gabled attics. Its plan follows medieval precedent with a two-storey hall range (containing the doorway on the left) positioned between a narrower left-hand cross-wing with a two-storey canted bay window and a two-bay right-hand cross-wing. Chimney stacks are located on the gables and between the hall range and the left wing. All windows are mullioned; those on the ground floor also have transoms.

The interior contains the Old School Library (originally the 'Big School') to the left of the entrance. This is a tall three-bay room with a further bay beneath the tower, beyond a pair of two-centred double-chamfered arches, of which one chamfer dies into an octagonal pier. The end bay window contains stained glass by W. Wailes dated 1852, featuring six medallions depicting scenes from English history including St. Alban, King Canute, William the Conqueror and Hereward. The ceiling has exposed joists of thin section, chamfered with plain stops, supported by cross-beams borne on cusped brackets. Behind the library stands the staircase, whose solid stone steps are carried on iron beams and strings, with iron balusters reminiscent of Gothic colonnettes. The attic rooms, which contain dormitories, are ceiled at the level of the upper collar, supported by a king post and diagonal struts carried on a lower collar.

Before 1852, the school was housed in a purpose-built schoolhouse dated 1682 which stood to the west of St. Mary's Church.