Scarcroft County Primary School

Scarcroft County Primary School

A board school, now county primary school, built in 1896 and designed by W H Brierley. The building is constructed of orange-brown brick laid in English bond on a chamfered brick plinth, with orange brick dressings. The roofs are slate with stone copings and brick stacks, except for one stack of stone that surmounts a tall brick tower. Three other towers and a centre ridge clock tower are topped with octagonal louvred wooden cupolas, each with a lead ogee roof and finials. The tall centre range features two half-hipped dormers with sprocketed roofs and tapering finials on both sides. The building is decorated with ornate cast-iron tie rod ends and integral cast-iron and lead rainwater goods. Windows throughout have chamfered brick quoined surrounds with hollow chamfered flat arches of gauged brick, except where otherwise noted.

The north-east front faces Nunthorpe Road and is the principal elevation. It comprises a central gabled hall range of two high storeys and an attic with three bays articulated by full-height gabled pilasters, flanked by square towers (one surmounted by a cupola, the other by a louvred stack with a tapering brick pot). Gabled lower crosswings of three storeys and attics project forward on each side. The central bays contain 3-light windows between 2-light small-pane windows on both floors, recessed within 2-storey multiple-order pointed arches of hollow chamfered gauged brick. Ground floor windows are transomed; upper floor windows are double transomed with 2-centred heads. The gable apex features a fire escape door beneath a cambered lintel. The towers have single 3-pane lights. Both wings display 2-storey canted bay windows with half-hexagonal bracketed sprocketed roofs to their gable ends, containing 1x6-pane and 2x6-pane lights with stone lintels. In the gable apex of each wing is a 2x6-pane window recessed beneath a semicircular arch of rubbed brick. The left crosswing has a 3-storey projection with a half-hipped bracketed sprocketed roof and three wide openings below eaves level. The inner return of each wing has a shallow pent-roofed porch with a moulded bracketed cornice and board double doors. Windows are regularly disposed with 2x6-pane and 3x6-pane lights.

The south-west front repeats the design of the north-east front, but without the 3-storey projection and stone stack. All windows to the gabled centre are 3-light casements with the same detailed treatment.

The south-east and north-west fronts each comprise a 9-bay centre range of two high storeys set between 2-storey, 3-window cross gables, flanked at each end by outer returns of lower 3-storey wings. The wings have steps leading up to glazed and panelled double doors recessed beneath 2-centred multiple-order arches of moulded brick, with paired 6-pane casements in two tiers above. In the centre range, windows are 18-pane segment-headed sashes with moulded stone sills, with those on the upper floor set beneath an arcade of segmental arches on pilasters rising from the first floor band. In the cross gables, similar windows are separated by 2-storey gabled pilasters and grouped beneath a single semicircular multiple-order arch of moulded brick. Ground floor windows have segmental heads; upper floor windows have square heads and round arches of gauged brick.

The interior has not been fully inspected but appears largely unaltered, retaining some original fixtures and fittings.