Elsecar Holy Trinity CE Primary Academy and School Master's House

Elsecar Holy Trinity CE Primary Academy and School Master's House

A school and master's house dated 1852, funded by the 5th Earl Fitzwilliam.

The school is constructed of well-dressed and finely coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings, and is roofed with Welsh slate featuring complex fish-scale slating on most faces. Decorative timber barge-boards embellish the exterior.

The building is a tall single-storey structure in early Victorian Elizabethan Revival style, planned with a central north-south hall and a parallel classroom range to the east, accessed externally from the south. A through-corridor runs along the west side of the hall between main doorways to north and south. Extending westward from this corridor is a further classroom flanked by cross wings, the southern wing probably originally forming the master's office, while the northern wing was later extended to accommodate another classroom.

The south elevation is composed of three equal gables with decorative perforated barge-boards. Each gable contains a small lobed lozenge-shaped stone-framed window with leaded glazing set high up, with a large window below in a chamfered opening. The central window has a raised head, divided by stone mullions and transoms, all set beneath a stepped drip mould. Projecting forwards is a lower twin-gabled cloakroom extension with cross-mullioned windows. Set back is a pitched roof forming a cross-range that projects further westwards than eastwards. The roofs of the three gables and cross-range are decoratively slated with courses of pointed, round-pointed and semi-circular ended slates interspersed with plain slate courses in varying tones of grey. The eastern gabled roof has a ventilation gablette to each side.

The north elevation mirrors the south elevation in its form of windows and decorative treatment of slating and barge-boards. The western gable has a slightly lower but architecturally matching extension projecting forward. In place of the cloakroom extension is a stone-roofed gabled porch with a hood-mould featuring carved head stops. To the left stands a utilitarian mid-twentieth-century flat-roofed rendered boiler room extension. To the west is a hipped-roofed stone-built early twentieth-century classroom extension, which along with the inner roof slopes of the three gables is plain-slated.

The east elevation comprises five bays with a central gable and a blind, slightly stepped-down extension to the north forming a sixth bay. The central gable is flanked by buttresses and contains a large pointed-arched window with hood-mould and a small lozenge window above, retaining decorative barge-board. The west elevation, including its extension, is decoratively slated. The westward projecting wing central to the west elevation has a taller pointed-arched window with hood-mould extending into the space otherwise occupied by a lozenge window similar to the other gables, and retains decorative barge-board.

Internally, the original pair of southern entrance doorways remains visible within the southern cloakroom extension. Both have four-centred-arched heads framing what appear to be double doors, though only one leaf opens, the other being fixed as part of the central hall wall. The interior retains numerous Victorian features including internal doors set within panelled door cases, a Gothic style cupboard, and an arched bookcase alcove. The roof structure is thought to be ornamented and intact but is largely concealed by twentieth-century suspended ceilings.

The contemporary former school master's house, now used as offices, is constructed of matching materials and architectural detailing, including decorative slating and barge-board. It is two storeys with a westwards-projecting service wing and a three-bay principal elevation facing the playground to the south of the school. The main entrance occupies the central bay, breaking forward slightly as a gabled cross-wing. Ground floor window joinery has been replaced, while the first floor retains horned sashes. Two truncated ridge stacks remain. Internally the plan form is unaltered and retains its original staircase with stick balusters and ramped handrail.