Former Heath Grammar School and associated drill shed, fives court and boundary wall and entrance gateway fronting Free School Lane

This former grammar school complex, now a training centre, comprises the main school building, a drill shed, a fives court building, and a front boundary wall with entrance gateway. The school and drill shed were built in 1878-9 by architects Joseph and John Leeming. The fives court building dates from the early 20th century. All buildings are constructed of local sandstone with slate roofs, designed in the Elizabethan style.

Site Layout

The main building is rectangular with a central projecting assembly hall to the rear on the south side. On the west side of the site stands the former drill shed, now converted to storage and office space. In the south-west corner is the fives court building containing two courts.

Main School Building: Exterior

The principal north elevation, set back from Free School Lane, is two storeys over a basement and nine bays long. It is built of squared and coursed sandstone blocks with ashlar stone dressings, a plinth, and moulded sill bands. The central gabled bay is recessed behind a projecting ground-floor porch. The gable has stone coping with a diamond-shaped finial at its apex, flanked by small octagonal stone pinnacles with pointed caps and ball finials. Near the apex is a large circular window with 'apple and pear' tracery and decorative leaded glazing—an exact copy of the Elizabethan window from the original school. Below this is a horizontal eight-light window with stone mullions and transoms.

The porch has a moulded parapet incorporating the first-floor sill band. Set on the parapet is a rectangular stone plaque with a central relief-carved mandorla enclosing an open book and various symbols. The inscription reads: "FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL OF QUEEN ELIZABETH / FOUNDED 1585 REBUILT 1878 / SCHEME OF ENDOWED SCHOOL COMMISSIONERS APPROVED BY / QUEEN VICTORIA IN COUNCIL FOURTH OF AUGUST 1873." The porch has a foliate-carved impost band and a wide Tudor-arched doorway. The doorway, raised with three steps, has a moulded architrave, foliate-carved spandrels, and a pedimented doorhood with ball and decorative finials. The double timber doors have vertical battens. Set on the ridge in the centre of the roof is a timber double-height lantern with ball finials and a pointed roof topped by a weather vane.

The first, fourth, sixth, and ninth bays have triangular pediments with coping and ball finials at their apexes. The second and third bays, and the seventh and eighth bays, flanked by the pedimented bays, have pierced parapetting. All windows are square-headed with double-chamfered frames. On the ground floor, the pedimented bays have wide windows with two stone mullions and window frames of three vertical lights, with a horizontal band of six small round-headed lights above, echoing the pierced parapetting. The windows in bays two, three, seven, and eight are narrower with a single stone mullion and a high stone transom. These window frames have three vertical lights with a single light above the transom. On the first floor, the pedimented bays have wide windows with two stone mullions and similar glazing, with a horizontal band of six small pointed-head lights above, topped by a narrower band of four small square-headed windows. The windows in bays two, three, seven, and eight have similar mullion and transom windows as those on the ground floor. The basement on the left-hand side of the porch has wider windows with two mullions in bays one and four, and narrower single-mullion windows in bays two and three.

The east and west return elevations are similarly detailed with a central pediment with ball finial, flanked by pierced parapetting with ball finials to the outer corners, and similar mullion and transom windows. The large first-floor windows have a narrower top band of windows like those in the pedimented bays of the front elevation. On the east elevation, a first-floor doorway has been inserted to the left-hand side with a spiral iron fire-escape. To its left is a single ground-floor bay, with a tall, slightly tapering square chimney to the outer corner (shown on the original architects' drawing). Attached to the right-hand side of the west elevation is a later two-storey, single-bay block of narrow coursed stonework with quoins to the outer corner, a plinth, and a hipped roof.

The rear elevation of the main building has a two-storey, five-bay block to the left-hand side with a central pediment with stone coping and kneelers. The flanking bays have large paired windows with square heads on both floors. The windows in the central bay have stone mullions separating narrow side lights, the central light on the first floor being a pane taller in height. All windows have rectangular panes set in timber frames.

Projecting from the centre of the rear elevation is the assembly hall. It is built of coursed stonework and is a tall single storey over a basement with a south gable wall and five-bay side elevations. The side elevations both have a plinth and a parapet. The bays have tall square-headed windows except for the second bays out, which both have a wide doorway with a square window over. All windows have rectangular panes in timber frames. There is a small circular ventilator on the roof ridge.

To the right-hand side of the rear elevation, adjoining the hall, is a two-storey and basement, three-bay gabled block with kneelers. It has stone mullion and transom windows on both floors of the central bay. These are flanked by narrower windows on the first floor and a narrower window in the first bay of the ground floor, with a doorway with rectangular overlight—perhaps inserted—in the third bay with external steps. The windows have rectangular panes in timber frames. Set back is a two-storey single gabled bay with the square chimney to the outer corner. It has a tall stone mullion and transom window on the ground floor and a horizontal eight-light mullion and transom window on the first floor. Set back on the main roof slope are two stone chimney stacks with moulded caps. The chimney is quoined.

Former Drill Shed

Built against the west boundary is the former drill shed, constructed of coursed stonework. It is single-storey with a double-pitched slate roof with continuous glazed rooflights at the apex on each side. The east elevation is hidden at the right-hand end by the later two-storey west block with the high-level covered bridge. Visible are two and a half wide pointed archways. The left-hand arch now has a built-up sill and is glazed, the central arch is boarded with a fire-escape doorway, and the right-hand partial arch is blocked up with coursed stonework.

Fives Court Building

In the south-west corner are two fives courts in a single-storey building with a double-pitched slate roof, both slopes with a row of continuous glazed rooflights. The east elevation is divided into two bays by battered stone buttresses. Each bay has low stone walls with a central doorway. Above the stonework is a row of bottom-hinged horizontal shutters, with horizontal timber boarding above and timber louvres beneath the eaves.

Interior: Main School Building

The entrance hall, spine corridor, and first-floor landing have moulded and fluted cornicing. Original doorways have timber architraves with shallow triangular pediments, and four-panelled doors—some with panels now glazed—and rectangular overlights. The entrance hall has an open-well staircase on the east side with concrete steps and a timber balustrade with turned balusters. There is a timber mantelpiece in the headmaster's room to the east of the entrance hall. The assembly hall has a shallow barrel-vaulted ceiling.

Interior: Former Drill Shed

The former drill shed has timber common rafters with vertical metal struts supporting metal tie rods. The roof has timber purlins and horizontal boarding. The north gable wall contains the original circular 'apple and pear' tracery window, presently covered with a Perspex sheet. Beneath are two blocked pointed-arch openings. The south end has an inserted stone cross wall with the south bay used as an office with an inserted attic storage floor.

Interior: Fives Courts

The two fives courts have timber queen-post trusses with raking struts and metal strapping. The roof has horizontal timber boarding. The courts are divided by a cross wall beneath the central roof truss. The walls are plastered and painted black with a horizontal white line painted low on the back wall.

Boundary Wall and Gateway

At the front of the building, facing Free School Lane, is a low stepped boundary wall of coursed stonework with chamfered coping (topped by a privet hedge). The central memorial gateway commemorates former pupils who died in the Second World War. The gateway has wide gate piers of coursed stonework with quoining and ashlar caps with bases for finials (probable ball finials now missing). Double gates of decorative ironwork support an over-arching lintel carrying the Latin motto "DIGNI ET VOS ESTE FAVORE" (Be you also worthy of favour), with decorative scrolled ironwork above incorporating the mandorla also found on the entrance porch. On the left gate pier is a plaque of names, and on the right gate pier is a dedication plaque.

Exclusions

The following elements are not of special architectural or historic interest: the late-20th-century rectangular dining room and gymnasium attached to the south wall of the assembly hall by a two-storey link block with an arched walkway through at ground-floor level; the modern flat-roofed boiler house at the right-hand end of the rear elevation of the main school building; the two-storey block in the north-west corner linked to the original building by a first-floor covered bridge; and the two-storey infill building between the drill shed and the fives court on the west side of the site.

In the main school building, the modern lift and lift shaft inserted in the stairwell of the staircase in the entrance hall, the modern suspended ceilings in many of the former classrooms, and the partial modern suspended ceiling in the assembly hall are not of special architectural or historic interest.