Anns Road Nursery Junior And Infant Schools Caretakers House And Walls

Anns Road Nursery, Junior and Infant Schools with Caretaker's House and Boundary Walls

This complex of educational buildings, formerly known as Heeley Board School on Gleadless Road, was constructed in 1890 and 1897 to designs by CJ Innocent for the Sheffield School Board. The buildings represent a particularly large and complete example of Innocent's school architecture during his continued work for the Board after his official tenure as architect and surveyor (1871–1880).

The construction employs rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings, featuring gabled and hipped slate roofs with decorative ridge tiles and finials throughout. The architectural style is Renaissance Revival. The complex comprises three main blocks of varying heights—single, double, and triple storeys—along with ancillary buildings, all arranged at the corners of a rectangular site and enclosed and linked by boundary walls with gateways. Mid and late twentieth-century alterations have been made to various elements.

The nursery school, dated 1890 and positioned at the west corner, is a single-storey structure with a double range plan. Its most distinctive feature is an octagonal louvred wooden bell turret topped with an ogee lead dome and finial. The playground front displays a central gable containing a 3-light round-arched glazing bar window with hoodmould and shaped keystone, surmounted by a triple ventilator. To the right stands a hipped lower projection with a central through-eaves dormer featuring a shouldered gable and single casement, flanked by small casements and a double door. Further right is a 2-light casement with stone mullion, above which sits a pedimented dormer with a 3-light window. To the left is a 3-light casement with stone mullions, topped by another dormer, with a single casement beyond. The right gable contains a round window above an ornamented datestone. The left gable features a graduated triple window and a parapeted porch with a segment-headed door. A coped side wall stack adds to the composition. Two mid-twentieth-century single-storey link buildings connect this block to the larger 2-storey block at the south corner.

The 2-storey rear elevation on Gleadless Road incorporates the caretaker's house within its lower storey. This elevation presents a single coped gable and side wall stacks. A double through-eaves dormer with segment-headed windows is flanked to the right by a double casement with stone mullion. Below these, a door with overlight is positioned between a plain sash to the right and two plain sashes beyond it; to the left sits a double plain sash with stone mullion. A projecting wing to the right features a 4-light round-headed window, above which runs an ornamented frieze with central cornice. Beyond this are two smaller gabled wings, each with 2-light casements with stone mullions. The left gable holds two tall segment-headed casements flanking an external stack.

The south corner block fronts Hartley Street and employs a double range plan, characterised by two octagonal domed cupolas and a coped ridge stack. An off-centre main gable displays a large round-arched window with keystone and a 5-light window with stone mullions beneath. To the left are two casements and two gabled through-eaves dormers with single casements—the larger right one being segment-headed. Below these sit two segment-headed casements, each flanked by single casements. To the right is a through-eaves dormer with segment-headed casement, accompanied by three casements to the left and one to the right. The right gable features a keystone round window above three casements. The left gable displays a graduated triple casement with a segment-headed central light, beneath which is a segment-headed window and single casement. To the left stands a canted 2-storey stair turret with panelled frieze and coped parapet, pierced by two 2-light mullioned windows.

The rear elevation of this block contains two through-eaves dormers with segment-headed windows, flanked by single casements, with a similar dormer to the left. The ground floor features gabled buttresses to each bay and an angle buttress to the left. Six round-arched openings are present; two to the left are blocked while four to the right contain windows. To the right, a hipped 3-storey block rises with a double plain sash and an upper through-eaves dormer with sash and ornamented gable, with a triple sash below. To the left is a casement with transom and toplight, beneath which sits a projecting gabled porch with door, overlight, and segment head with keystone. The left gable contains a round-arched window above a similar blocked opening. At the east corner stands a single-storey gabled toilet block enclosed by a wall with doorways on two sides.

The junior school occupies the north corner as a 2-storey structure with basement, marked by a coped side wall stack set diagonally. The playground front is arranged in bays divided by buttresses. The main gable displays a round-arched 4-light window with keystone and voussoirs, surmounted by a round-arched niche under a cornice. Below are two segment-headed casements with keystones. On either side extends a triple bay featuring a central through-eaves dormer with segment-headed window, flanked by smaller casements. Below these are three casements, with the larger central one being segment-headed. Beneath the left bay runs a square-headed basement opening flanked by round-arched openings and divided by small buttresses. To the left stands a single gable with round-arched 4-light window and two casements below; the basement here contains a partly blocked round-arched window. The right gable features a round window.

The right return presents a projecting 2-storey hipped entrance bay with a central through-eaves dormer and segment-headed window, flanked by two small casements. Below this sits a gabled porch with steps leading to a recessed segment-headed door flanked by two tall transomed casements. Above the door sit two small windows. All these openings share a common cornice. The left return, facing Anns Road, displays bays defined by buttresses and an octagonal bell turret. A central double bay features two through-eaves dormers with segment-headed windows, two segment-headed windows below, and four round-arched doors and windows to the basement, all divided by smaller buttresses. The rear elevation incorporates a gabled wing to the left and a larger hipped 2-storey wing to its right, with a mid-twentieth-century flat-roofed 2-storey addition.

The interior was not inspected during the listing survey.

The stone boundary wall features predominantly gabled stone coping. On the Anns Road side sit two gateways flanking an intermediate toilet block with coped wall. At the rounded corners, a lower section displays chamfered ashlar coping and two rectangular gate piers with chamfered caps opposite the caretaker's house. The Hartley Road side possesses a rounded corner to the left and a pair of square gate piers with wrought-iron gate and short lengths of flanking railing; a plainer gateway stands to the right.

CJ Innocent served as architect and surveyor to the Sheffield School Board from 1871 to 1880, designing many early board schools in conjunction with T Brown, who died in 1881. Innocent continued his school design practice thereafter, of which this building stands as a particularly substantial and comprehensive example of his mature work.