Old Village School House

BENTLEY WITH ARKSEY HIGH STREET SE 50 NE (west side), Arksey

7/52 Old Village School 10.12.59 House (formerly listed as Village School) GV II School house now youth club. 1683, altered and extended in C19. For Sir George Cooke (d1683). Rubble magnesian limestone, Welsh slate roof. 1 storey, 5 bays; wing to rear right. Large quoins. Blocked central doorway with bolection-moulded surround, pulvinated frieze and broken segmental pediment (formerly with cartouche in tympanum). Other bays have recessed, chamfered surrounds to tall 2-light mullioned windows with C20 casements and trefoil-head lights beneath square heads. Continuous cyma-moulded dripmould. Shaped kneelers and triangular gable copings. Tall rendered end stacks with cornices. Rear: one window as front, otherwise altered; wing on left has 5-light window in its return and tall external stack in angle with main range.

"Sir George Cooke, Bart. gave by his will £200, and two cottages, for building a fair school-house". (Camden Britannica, page 849, cited by Miller p228).

D. Hey, Buildings of Britain 1550-1750, Yorkshire, 1981, p134 (plate).

E. Miller, The History and Antiquities of Doncaster, 1804.

Listing NGR: SE5788806877