Old Village School

Former Village School, Hayton

This former village school, now village hall, was built in 1854 for WH Rudstone Reed, then lord of the manor. The building is constructed of brick with stone dressings beneath a Welsh slate roof, fitted with cast iron rain water goods.

The original structure comprises a single room with a main entrance positioned at the right hand end of the principal elevation facing Town Street (the approach road), and a secondary entrance (probably originally for the children) at the centre of the right hand gable end. Both entrances are protected by enclosed porches. A later lean-to extension to the rear is of no particular architectural interest.

The principal elevation facing south-west toward Town Street is of three bays. It features a gabled roofed porch to the right, and to the left are two cross mullioned windows with diamond leaded lights flanking a chimney stack. The porch contains a plank door with decorative iron strap hinges, set within a chamfered stone surround with a four-centred Tudor style arch. Freestanding iron boot scrapers flank the doorway on the step. Above the porch door are decorative barge boards protecting a shield-shaped foundation stone inscribed: "HAYTON SCHOOL ERECTED BY W.H. RUDSTON REED ESQ LORD OF THE MANOR 1854."

The main roof, the porch roof, and one side of the gable end porch all feature fish scale slating. The main roof is banded with three bands of fish scale slating of increasing width down the roof slope: the upper band has three courses of fish scales, the middle band four courses, and the lowest band five courses. The intermediate bands of plain slating similarly increase in number of courses down the slope. At the left hand end of the ridge line is what initially appears to be a narrow ridge stack, but this is not a chimney; it is interpreted instead as the base for a bell-cote.

The left gable, facing the church, has a single cross mullioned window with plain glass casements and is topped by a trefoil air vent, both formed from stone dressings. The roof verge is finished with decorative barge boards. The right gable is considerably plainer, with no stone dressings or decorative barge boards, and only a simple slit in place of the trefoil air vent; the doorway to the gable end porch, however, has a rubbed brick surround with a Tudor style arch.

Most of the rear elevation is obscured by the later extension, though the segmental arched head of a former window remains exposed. The rear roof, including that of the gable end porch, is plain slated.

The interior of the original school building is not subdivided. The rear extension, with inserted doors through the original external wall, is of no special interest. The original building retains a timber floor, a mid-19th century fireplace, and the original inner door to the principal porch complete with a simple Suffolk latch. The inner door to the gable end porch is a later replacement. The open roof structure features king strut trusses with raking struts supporting back purlins, embellished with acorn pendants fixed to the tie beams beneath the king struts. At the time of inspection, this roof structure was visible through the loft hatch in the modern suspended ceiling that now obscures it; this modern ceiling is of no special interest.