Former Talbot Roman Catholic Primary School

The former Talbot Roman Catholic Primary School, built between 1847 and 1849 (dated 1849 above the south doorway), is currently being restored and converted into a library. It is constructed of uncoursed brown sandstone rubble with lighter-coloured sandstone dressings and a graduated slate roof. The building has an L-shaped plan, comprising a long rectangular range running perpendicular to the street, containing two large halls separated by a lateral passage, with a transept at the east end of the north side. It is designed in the Early English style.

The single-storey building has a steeply-pitched roof and 7+1+7 bays, with low side walls and a large west-facing gable to Weston Street. The gable features side buttresses, two offsets, and a stepped group of three tall cusped lancet windows centered within smaller flanking lancets. A coped gable with a former finial stool tops the structure. The south front has matching buttresses, coupled cusped lancet windows in each bay, although the three easternmost bays are now obscured by a later 19th-century addition. A wide, gabled porch projects slightly, centered on the south front, with an octagonal stair turret attached to its right-hand corner. The porch features a two-centred arched doorway with shafts, a tablet bearing the inscription "IHS / MUNIFICENTIAE / GULIELMI TALBOT / SOCIETATI PERENNE MONUMENTUM / [1]849" (the first digit of the date is missing), and a window with three stepped cusped lights in the gable. The turret has small lancet windows and a conical, octagonal cap. A small dormer sits above the porch, and two ventilators are on the ridge of the roof. The rear and north transept sides are in similar style, with a rebuilt former rear porch now serving as a chimney. An irregular extension in matching style and materials is located to the rear of the transept.

Inside, a wide central passage features an inner porch at the south end and large two-centred arches and coupled segmental-pointed windows, all opening into the halls on either side. A spiral staircase leads to the attic above the passage. The large halls each contain six arch-braced hammerbeam roof trusses with trefoil arcading above the collars. A three-bay arcade leads to the transept, which also has a hammerbeam roof of a different design.

Historically, the school likely served as both a church and a school before the opening of St Walburge’s Church in 1854. It forms a group with that church, sharing similar materials and roof construction.