Sandal First School

Sandal First School is a board school constructed between 1893 and 1894, with minor alterations in the 20th century. It is built of rockfaced stone with ashlar dressings, plain tile roofs, and shouldered and coped rear and side wall stacks. The architectural style is Perpendicular Gothic.

The school has a central rectangular block with recessed side wings and paired rear wings. It features sill bands and coped gables with ball finials. The main façade is arranged as 1:4:1 bays with rectangular central range, and recessed side wings and paired rear wings. Windows contain stone mullions and transoms, with major windows featuring four-centred arches and tracery.

The central block has four cross-mullioned windows flanked by single lights. Above, two through-eaves dormers each have a three-light window flanked by single lights. The return gables have single cross mullioned windows flanked by single lights; the left gable has been converted into a doorway. Above this, a three-light pointed arched window sits between single lights. The left side wing has a three-light flat-headed window, while the right wing has a doorway with a pointed arched overlight. Above each are two two-light pointed arched windows. The left return has two large openings with later 20th-century glazing, and a cross-mullioned window with an inserted door. The right return has a cross-mullioned window flanked by a single light to the left and an opening with 20th-century glazing to the right. Above, each return features a central through-eaves dormer with a tall transomed light flanked by single lights, and these windows are partly reglazed. The rear gables of the wings have three large flat-headed openings and above these, a two-light window.

The paired rear wings have four large flat-headed openings with 20th-century glazing, and above these, large three-light pointed arched windows with sidelights. On each side, a flat-roofed square porch has a door and overlight, approached by a ramp with 19th-century railings.

The interior ground floor rooms have late 20th-century ceilings and matchboard dadoes. The entrance hall contains a plain open well staircase and a cross-beam sitting on a cast iron column with elaborate scroll brackets. The first-floor hall has a matchboard dado and an arch-braced roof on corbels, along with glazed screens and half-glazed doors leading to adjoining classrooms. The classrooms share similar roofs and detailing, with one having a partly exposed roof.

Outside, a rockfaced stone boundary wall encloses the rectangular site. The wall has gabled and flat coping, with chamfered ashlar coping to the front and rear with renewed railing. Two original gates are at the rear, and one pair is at the front, with cross-gabled square gatepiers.