Former Long Eaton School

The building is a former school, constructed in 1911 by G H Widdows, the Derbyshire County Council architect. It is built of red brick on an ashlar plinth, with stone and gauged brick dressings. The roof is slate, with a bell housed in a canted structure with overhanging eaves, moulded stone copings to the gables on plain kneelers, vented brick ridge stacks, and an octagonal timber cupola on a leaded base with colonnaded sides and a domed copper roof to the ridge of the central wing.

The building has two storeys and a complex plan, comprising a four-bay central range flanked by shorter wings angled at 45 degrees to the south and longer ranges angled at 45 degrees to the north. The central hall features four, almost full-height, three-light, double-transomed windows with double-chamfered segment heads, double keystones, and stained glass to the top panes. Continuous flush stone bands run at sill and lintel levels of the windows, topped by a stone parapet with canted stone piers between recessed panels. A c. 1970 doorcase, with glazed doors, has been inserted to the east of the windows.

The short wings to either side have central three-light transomed casement windows under flat, gauged brick arches with stone keyblocks, flanked by similar single-light windows. This arrangement is repeated on the upper floor. The gable ends of these wings feature three similar single-light windows on the ground floor and a large five-light segment-headed window above, with a deep stone band over and a blind recess below. The angles between the long and short angled ranges include single bays with semi-circular stone steps leading to a deep stone, segment-headed doorcase, with a curved bracketed cornice and a long, curving keystone stretching from the door lintel to over the cornice. Above each doorcase is an area of brickwork with two lozenges in lighter brick, surmounted by a stone mullion and transomed bay window with stone turrets to either side, each with narrow slit windows near the base. Canted stone parapets rise above the eaves between the turrets.

The long north ranges have advanced gabled bays at each end, each featuring a three-light double-transomed casement window below a flat arch with a stone keyblock. This is flanked by similar single-light windows on the ground floor, with matching windows above, a blind semi-circular gauged brick arch above the central window, and two flush stone bands in the gable. Between the doorcase and the gabled end bay are two similar three-light windows flanked by two-light windows nearest the gabled bay and another three-light window nearest the doorcase. A similar window arrangement is repeated on the upper floor. Widdows was known for his advanced ideas regarding school planning and ventilation.