Barrow Hill Primary School

Barrow Hill Primary School is located on Station Road in Staveley. Built between 1853 and 1856, it was originally known as the Barrow Hill (Mixed) School, constructed for Richard Barrow, Chairman of the Staveley Coal and Iron Company Ltd. The building was erected as part of the development of a new industrial community and served multiple purposes—functioning as a school, church, and community meeting room until the settlement's dedicated church building was completed. Ownership transferred to Derbyshire County Council in 1905.

The school is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, coped gables, and a Welsh slate roof covering. It follows an asymmetrical L-shaped plan with an advanced entrance tower and spire positioned at the south-east frontage.

The south-east elevation comprises four distinct elements. The tall five-bay hall dominates the central component, with an advanced attached tower and spire at its south-west corner. The hall features four tall six-light mullion and transom windows with stepped string courses forming hoodmoulds above the openings. A tall stepped buttress rises between the two central windows. Below each window, a doorway with twentieth-century glazed door has been inserted. The tower is two-staged, with stepped buttresses and arch-headed traceried two-light mullioned windows to the upper stage, beneath a crenellated parapet with crocketed pinnacles at the corners. The tower supports an octagonal spire with two tiers of lucarnes.

To the north-east of the hall stands an advanced gable of a six-bay classroom range with central paired mullion and transom windows separated by a major mullion. A single-storey gabled entrance porch with an arched doorway adjoins this gable; above the doorway is an inscribed panel reading "Infants". A long classroom range is attached to the south-west wall of the tower, with a gabled entrance porch to its south-west side matching the configuration on the north-east side of the hall. Set back behind the west porch is a three-bay wing to the west classroom range, featuring two four-light mullion and transom windows on its south side wall.

The classroom range behind the north-east elevation begins with the porch at its south-east end, followed by an advanced gable with a stepped mullion and transom window comprising a six-light central part and flanking two-light sections. To the right are the four tall mullion and transom windows and the central stepped buttress of the north-east classroom range. Window openings throughout have twentieth-century glazed doors inserted below them.

The south-west elevation displays the classroom wing gable at its south-east end with a stepped mullion and transom window at its centre. Set back behind this is a ten-bay classroom range with six-light windows arranged in groups of 2:3:3:2, separated by three stepped buttresses. The mullions and transoms to five windows at the northern end of this range have been removed and replaced with modern glazing.

Internally, the central hall retains panelled partitions at the end walls where they meet the classroom ranges, although a false ceiling now conceals the hall roof trusses. A doorway from the hall leads to the tower stair, which has plain metal balusters and handrail. The remainder of the building's interior contains no notable original fixtures or fittings.

The school was constructed as part of the Staveley Coal and Iron Company's planned model settlement, intended to house an enlarged workforce, their managers, and families—following the precedent set by Richard Arkwright and the Strutts at Cromford and Belper in the late eighteenth century. The housing development included 178 workers' houses and eight large villas for managers, sited immediately to the north-west and west of the school site. In the 1905 conveyancing document transferring ownership to Derbyshire County Council, the building is referred to as both "The Barrow Hill (Mixed) School" and "The Staveley Works Church School".