Goole Grammar School

Goole Grammar School

A grammar school built between 1907 and 1909 by the architectural practice Willinck and Thicknesse, with surveyors Thornley and Furbur of Liverpool. Later internal alterations were carried out. The building is constructed of pale yellow-orange brick laid in Flemish bond with orange brick and ashlar dressings. The main hall block is roofed in Westmorland slate, while the remainder of the building uses stone slate and concrete tile. A lead dome crowns the cupola.

The school is designed in the Queen Anne style and has a T-shaped plan. The central double-pile range houses the central entrance flanked by classrooms and staffrooms, with an assembly hall and kitchen wing to the rear. Short linking wings connect to flanking pavilions containing further classrooms. The building rises to 2 storeys, with the assembly hall section reaching 3 storeys.

The south front features a central range arranged as 3:3:5:3:3 bays, with a central pedimented 5-bay section and 3-bay end wings that break forward. Lower 2-storey recessed 3-bay ranges link these to flanking 6-bay pavilion wings. An orange brick plinth runs throughout with raised quoins and a 5-course first-floor band.

The projecting central entrance has an ashlar surround with an architrave beneath a moulded cornice and blocking course. Above this sits a cartouche with a carved relief of the Goole arms surmounted by a coronet and supported by wreaths and festoons. The entrance porch is lined internally with a moulded ceiling cornice and contains half-glazed panelled double doors with latticed glazing bars beneath an overlight with margin lights and latticed glazing bars.

Windows to the side bays are 18-pane sashes, while those to the central bays of the end wings have margin lights. The first floor features a central tripartite sash with glazing bars, flanked by 18-pane sashes. Deep eaves and a central pediment with a round-arched panel occupy the tympanum, containing a raised inscription reading "GOOLE GRAMMAR SCHOOL MCMIX" beneath a keyed rubbed-brick arch. The roof is hipped to the wings with terracotta urn finials decorated with swags and flaming tops.

The 3-storey hall section to the rear has a hipped mansard roof with urn finials and an octagonal cupola. The cupola features round-headed windows with glazing bars set in architraves, beneath a moulded cornice, blocking course, and dome. A weathervane with a gilded ship crowns the dome.

The pavilion wings each have wide 12-pane ground-floor sashes with margin lights. The first floor contains four tall central round-headed half-dormer windows with margin lights and radial glazing bars, flanked by single 12-pane sashes with margin lights. These wings have deep eaves and hipped roofs with urn finials. Recessed sections between the main range and pavilions contain 12-pane ground-floor sashes and unequal 9-pane first-floor sashes. All windows throughout have flush wooden architraves and shaped stone sills beneath rubbed-brick flat arches.

Tall roof and ridge stacks with moulded brick cornices and flat stone deflectors sit on top.

The left return consists of 17 bays and the right return of 11 bays. Each has a projecting enclosed entrance porch with a cyma-moulded brick architrave, cornice, and blocking course. The inner doors are half-glazed panelled double doors with margin lights over fielded panels, beneath an overlight with latticed glazing bars. The ground floor has 12-pane sashes, with the first floor containing alternating 12-pane sashes and tall round-headed half-dormer sashes similar to those on the south front.

The rear of the 3-storey section contains large windows to a second-floor art room: a central unequal sash with glazing bars flanked by 3-light plate-glass sashes with margin lights, each breaking the eaves line beneath individual moulded cornices with blocking courses.

The projecting rear kitchen wing has a 7-bay north front with an altered ground floor, first-floor band, and alternating 12-pane sashes and round-headed first-floor windows similar to those on the pavilion wing returns.

Internally, the entrance hall is fitted with square panelled columns and pilasters with moulded cornices. The original section of the assembly hall retains a panelled ceiling with moulded cornices and plasterwork wreaths, together with painted coat of arms. Open-well staircases feature ramped handrails and plain balusters. Double doors to corridors have latticed glazing bars, and classroom doors are set in panelled architraves. Later adjoining ranges are of no special architectural interest.