Former Drighlington Junior School

Former Drighlington Junior School

This former board school was built in 1874-75 to the designs of Lockwood & Mawson, the nationally recognised Bradford architectural firm. It is constructed of coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs, and comprises a single-storey building of classical character. The school was erected at a cost of £1,200 as a junior school incorporating boys' and girls' departments on the site of a 17th-century grammar school endowed by James Margetson, Archbishop of Armagh, a native of the village. The foundation stone was laid on 4 July 1874 by Mrs John Hague, wife of the lord of the manor.

The building follows an 'E' plan with front and rear playgrounds, though dividing walls to the front playground have been removed. A late 19th or early 20th-century extension to the rear left is not of special interest.

The north-west front elevation is 13 bays long and forms the principal façade. A central projecting bay rises as a two-storey clock tower, the focal point of the composition. The lower stage has windows to its front and side returns with a gable detail to the mid-section, featuring a dentil cornice and an ashlar tympanum containing relief lettering reading '1875' flanked by carved decoration. The upper stage carries carved consoles at each corner supporting square Doric-style columns, above which is a clock face with decorative carved surround. Paired arched windows in a belfry style occupy the sides, with keystones and mullions taking the form of square Doric-style pilasters. A deep moulded cornice incorporating a dentil band crowns the stage, and the tower is surmounted by a pyramidal lead roof and weathervane with wrought-iron scrollwork. Three bays to each end of the front elevation project forward slightly and terminate in gables, each containing a roundel with carved surround incorporating relief lettering reading 'GIRLS' (to the left) and 'BOYS' (to the right). Wide doorways with cambered heads and large overlights occupy bays four and ten, each surmounted by large fixed pane six-light windows; these are now accessed by a later ramp and short stair flight. A projecting ashlar stringcourse runs below the windows, while a flush ashlar band above the windows forms a lintel band. A dentil eaves cornice adorns the front and side elevations. Windows throughout are six-over-six sash windows with cambered heads.

The north-east side elevation is eight bays in length and maintains the style of the front elevation. Three bays to the far left form a projecting rear wing and are slightly lower in height, featuring three-over-six windows (top-hung lower panes) with a sill band. An early 20th-century extension is attached to bay four at right angles to the main building; the lower part of the original window has been converted into a door leading into this extension, which is not of special interest.

The south-west side elevation matches the style of the north-east elevation. A doorway to the left bay of the rear wing, incorporating an overlight, is accessed by two stone steps.

The south-east rear elevation features three projecting wings. Those to the outside are four bays in length, each with paired gable ends. The taller central wing (extended slightly in the early 20th century) has a hipped roof and taller windows, with a doorway to its left bay in a style matching those of the front elevation, now boarded over. A wall stack serving a basement boiler stands below. Two-bay links between the projecting wings contain three-over-six sash windows. An iron gate and railings with handrail incorporating scrolled stops enclose an external basement stair.

The interior is arranged with entrance corridors and classrooms occupying the centre front of the building, with further classrooms in the side wings and rear. Some minor alteration has introduced partition walls and a mezzanine inserted into the former infants' classroom to the centre rear. Original features survive and include built-in cupboards and shelving, timber panelled dados, moulded door architraves, partly glazed panelled doors, and a partly glazed panelled screen to the front right boys' classrooms (the lower part has been removed from the front girls' classrooms). Moulded cornicing runs along the corridors, and arched openings serve the entrance hall corridors and arched alcoves terminate each end of the original boys' and girls' cloakrooms behind the entrance halls. Original king post and arched brace roof trusses survive, some of which are concealed above later suspended ceilings. A later extension to the rear left containing toilets is not of special interest.

Boundary walls of sandstone enclose the school and playgrounds. Paired entrance gate piers to Whitehall Road, marking the original separate entrances to the boys' and girls' playgrounds, are surmounted by pyramidal caps. Plain gate piers with rounded heads stand to the rear left (north-east corner) of the school.

In 1916, Drighlington Infants' School merged with the girls' department and moved into the Whitehall Road premises. By 1949, the school comprised three separate schools with separate headteachers—junior, infants, and senior mixed. The senior mixed department, which developed from the original boys' department, was known as Margetson County Secondary School and was housed in a prefabricated building in the rear playground; this remained until the early 1960s when a new school opened in Morley. In 1971, the infants' school moved to a new building in Drighlington (demolished in 2004), and the Whitehall Road property became known as Drighlington Junior School. The schools subsequently re-merged in 2004-5, and a new school building opened at Moorland Road in November 2005.

Lockwood & Mawson of Bradford are recognised as one of the 19th century's leading regional architectural firms, working predominantly in West Yorkshire but also throughout England. In addition to numerous other commissions, they designed the model village of Saltaire for Sir Titus Salt in the 1850s-70s. They also designed several schools, including Saltaire School (1869, grade II), Feversham Street First School in Bradford (1873, grade II), and St Thomas' School in Bradford, now demolished.