Former Holme Hill School And Attached Masters House

Former Holme Hill School and attached Master's House, Grimsby

A school and attached schoolmaster's house, now an Education and Child Guidance Centre, built in 1876-8. Designed by Charles Bell of London, architect, and constructed by J M Thompson of Louth, builder, for the Great Grimsby School Board. The building has been subject to 20th-century alterations and repairs.

The structure is constructed of red brick in English bond with yellow brick and limestone ashlar dressings, and is roofed in Welsh slate. It is executed in the Gothic Revival style.

The school building is approximately rectangular in plan with a single storey and a distinctive 3-storey clock tower positioned over the main entrance. Single-bay projecting wings are linked by sections of 3 bays and 4 bays, arranged in the sequence 1:3:1:4:1 (tower):3:1. The building sits on a stepped plinth with quoins to the angles and openings. Angle buttresses flank the central tower, with a pair of buttresses flanking the central 2 bays of the 4-bay section.

The 3-stage tower features stone steps leading to the entrance, which is surmounted by a pointed moulded ashlar arch with a flush impost band and outer brick arch. The inner door is set beneath a pointed brick arch of 3 stepped orders. A stone plaque dated 1877 is positioned above the entrance and bears a central roundel with relief carving of the town seal depicting Grim and Havelock the Dane. Above this is a stone band with a recessed panel inscribed "GREAT GRIMSBY PUBLIC ELEMENTARY BOARD SCHOOL". The second stage contains a pair of lancet windows with a flush ashlar band at springer level. Between the second and third stages is a panel with flush ashlar bands enclosing 6 courses of cogged brick, above which rises a pointed moulded arch with a recessed ashlar panel containing a circular clockface above a frieze of 4 roundels. A moulded arch with carved string course is positioned at impost level. The top of the tower features an ornate parapet with miniature machicolations and pierced roundels, small elaborate angle turrets with conical caps and finials. The pyramidal roof is crowned with a bellcote carrying a spirelet with lucarnes and a weather-vane.

The side ranges contain 2-light mullioned and transomed windows with flush sill bands. The range to the left has an entrance with a panelled door beneath a pointed trefoiled arch with hoodmould. Gabled sections display 3-light mullioned and transomed windows set beneath pointed arches with plain yellow brick panels and flush ashlar bands. A gabled bay to the far right bears a foundation stone recording the date 18 May 1878 and the names of the architect and builder.

The right return, facing Wellington Street, features a gabled bay projecting to the far right and 3 windows to the left, with architectural details matching the main front.

The adjoining former schoolmaster's house is a 2-storey structure fronting Wellington Street, now incorporated into the Education Centre. It displays a similar style and materials to the main school range. The building is approximately L-shaped in plan with a gabled wing to the front and a wing to the rear right; a lower range containing the entrance is set back within the angle. The front elevation is irregular, with 2 first-floor windows. It sits on a chamfered ashlar plinth with quoins, flush ashlar sill and impost bands, a first-floor string course, and 1/1 plate-glass sashes to the front. The projecting gabled section incorporates a ground-floor canted brick and ashlar bay window beneath a hipped roof, with twin ashlar lancet windows to the first floor bearing hoodmoulds beneath a herringbone brick panel and pointed brick relieving arch. The section set back to the right contains an open porch with dwarf coped walls and a pair of cast-iron piers carrying a lean-to roof over a segmental-arched door, with a first-floor ashlar lancet window beneath a brick arch above.

The right return has a single staircase window to the left, positioned between flush ashlar bands and beneath a segmental brick relieving arch. A projecting wing to the right displays a ground-floor 2/2 sash beneath a segmental brick relieving arch and a first-floor 2/2 sash beneath a lintel, with a half-hipped roof. The remainder features pitched roofs.

This was the first major school built in Grimsby following the 1870 Education Act. Charles Bell won a nationwide competition for its design. The building forms part of a notable group of Victorian and Edwardian educational and religious buildings erected on land provided by the Heneage Estate.