Barcroft Junior School (Section Fronting On To Barcroft Street)

Barcroft Junior School (Section Fronting on to Barcroft Street)

This is an infants' and girls' school, now part of the junior school, built in 1896 with minor later alterations. It was designed by the architects Croft and Bentley of Grimsby and built by Henry Marrows for Cleethorpes School Board. The building is constructed of red brick in English bond with sandstone ashlar and yellow brick dressings, beneath a Welsh slate roof, and is designed in the Arts and Crafts Northern Renaissance style.

The building is U-shaped in plan, comprising a central range containing cloakrooms and offices, flanked by a girls' section to the left and an infants' section to the right. Each section has an entrance passage and four classrooms; a later classroom was added to the rear of the central range. The building is predominantly two storeys in the central section and single storey in the flanking wings. The front elevation is particularly ornate.

The central section spans six bays. The lower storey features a chamfered brick plinth with four narrow windows beneath yellow brick segmental arches with fluted and corniced ashlar keystones to the central bays, and wider three-light mullioned-and-transomed windows beneath segmental arches with three keystones to the side bays. A two-course flush yellow brick impost band runs between the storeys. Above this is a moulded ashlar sill stringcourse. The upper storey has a pair of cross windows to the centre, with the right window partly blocked to its lower section. These windows are set beneath ornate ashlar relief panels and yellow brick basket arches with triple keystones. The left panel bears a roundel inscribed "Cleethorpes Urban District Council" with arms and motto, while the right panel bears a roundel inscribed "Cleethorpes School Board" with arms; both panels are decorated with ornate scrolls and foliage. Above each window, the central keystone supports a yellow brick pilaster which rises to a shaped gable with stringcourse, ashlar coping and carved finials. The recessed side bays feature moulded sill stringcourses and pairs of six-pane first-floor windows beneath keyed segmental arches. A moulded brick eaves cornice runs across, beneath the hipped roof. Single side-wall stacks are attached to the roof with ornate scrolled wrought-iron ties.

The flanking entrance bays to left and right each contain an ornate doorway leading to an internal porch. The doorways have moulded brick jambs and triple-keyed cambered ashlar arches, beneath which are recessed four-pane overlights. Above the arch is an ashlar relief panel surmounted by a keyed yellow brick basket arch. The left panel bears a shield inscribed "Girls" flanked by scrolled foliage, whilst the right panel bears a draped cloth inscribed "Infants". The upper sections of the doorways are flanked by ashlar pilasters with fluted and panelled shafts, foliate dosserets and finials. Corbelled brick pilasters rise above to a concave coped parapet ramped up to finials on either side, with a central finial carried on the keystone above the entrance arch. The doorways are fitted with inner half-glazed panelled double doors and overlights with margin lights.

The flanking classroom wings are particularly tall and prominent. Each gabled section has a tall central cross window beneath an ashlar relief panel and triple-keyed yellow brick basket arch, flanked by pairs of lower windows beneath keyed segmental brick arches. The central window is flanked by corbelled brick pilasters, and a similar pilaster is carried by the central keystone above, rising to a coped shaped gable with carved finials. All windows are recessed, with glazing bars, wooden architraves, and moulded mullions and transoms. Downpipes with ornamental rainwater heads serve the elevations. The roofs feature crested ventilator ridge tiles with finials to the hipped sections. The inner slopes of the roofs to the classroom ranges incorporate dormers with cambered-arched windows, moulded brick cornices and hipped roofs with finials.

The right return elevation comprises six bays with two tall half-dormers featuring cross windows beneath ashlar relief panels and keyed basket arches; the keystones carry pilasters rising to coped gables with shaped kneelers and finials. These are flanked by four-pane sash windows beneath chamfered ashlar lintels. A moulded brick eaves cornice runs below the roofline. A cross wing to the right features a segmental-headed cross window flanked by smaller sashes.

The left return has a recessed section with two tall half-dormers with cross windows beneath hipped roofs, and a single narrower similar window to the right.

The interior features basket-arched openings to the cloakroom section. The classrooms are fitted with moulded sill stringcourses, and their roofs incorporate arch braces carried on fluted stone corbels. Doors are set in architraves with roundel ornament.

The building was built to accommodate 300 girls and 254 infants. The original girls' and infants' playing-sheds in the playground to the rear are included in the listing for Barcroft Junior School (section fronting onto Lovett Street). This was the first school to be built for Cleethorpes School Board, which was founded in 1894, with the Boys' section adjoining to the south and fronting Lovett Street.

This is a good and unusually complete example of a late 19th-century Board School, built to a high standard of design and workmanship. The architectural detail and ornamental features throughout demonstrate the care taken in its design and execution.