Hornby Village Institute

The Hornby Village Institute, built in 1914 by Paley & Austin, is a good quality example of an Edwardian village institute. It is constructed of local rubble stone with ashlar dressings to the porch, windows, first floor band, and quoins. The building has deep, overhanging slate hipped roofs and is designed in an Elizabethan Revival style.

The front elevation has a prominent ashlar central bay with a porch featuring a rounded arch within a rectangular surround, flanked by pilasters with a continuous cornice and high plinth. Above the porch are four rectangular windows arranged in a cross formation, with four smaller lights above, set above a recessed plaque reading 'INSTITUTE'. A semi-circular pediment sits above the window arrangement, featuring a central crest plaque and corbelled blocks at eaves level. To either side of the central bay are a blind first floor and similar cross-windows of four lights over four, each with a shallow pediment. The left elevation features a canted bay window to the ground floor, below a similarly detailed first-floor window and gable. To the left is a lower bay with an entrance beneath a flat-roofed canopy on brackets, with two lights above and a single light to the left. The right elevation similarly has a first-floor window and gable above a canted ground-floor room with a flat roof and a cross-window to the front bay. To the right of this is an additional bay with windows. The rear elevation includes a pair of chimneystacks at the back of the front roof, and a pair of gabled wings with windows in stone surrounds. A rear addition from 1958 is not of special interest.

The main interior rooms are well preserved. The billiard room features a panelled dado, a wooden cornice, exposed ceiling joists on corbelled blocks, and a wide segmental stone arch with a keyblock over a wooden fireplace with green tiles and a panelled overmantel. The first-floor meeting room has an arched brace roof with principals on corbelled brackets and a moulded cornice, as well as tongue and groove panelling to the dado.

Paley & Austin were the most prominent architectural firm in Lancaster at the time; they also designed the local Church of St. Margaret.