The New Mills School

The New Mills School is a secondary school completed in 1912, designed by George Widdows, architect to Derbyshire's Education Committee from 1904 and Chief Architect to Derbyshire County Council from 1910 to 1936.

The building is constructed from uncoursed polygonal rubble gritstone with ashlar gritstone dressings to the external elevations and red brick inner walling, beneath Welsh slate roof coverings. It follows a quadrangular plan, with classroom ranges linked to an octagonal plan central hall by short link corridors.

The front (east) elevation comprises 9 bays arranged in a 1:4:1:4:1 pattern, with a 2-storied entrance flanked by single storey classroom ranges that terminate in advanced pavilion-like bays. Each pavilion is distinguished by a tall canted mullion and transom window set beneath a deep parapet and flanking stub towers, all in ashlar masonry. The entrance itself has a barbican-like character, with narrow ashlar towers flanking a wide semi-circular ground floor arch. Set back within the arch are the splayed reveals of a doorway with half-glazed double doors. The arch features attenuated voussoirs and a keystone, above which sits a canted 3-light window below a deep parapet. The flanking ranges contain tall 3-light windows with transomed multi-paned frames set below plain stone lintels at eaves level. The three remaining elevations display wide advanced end bays with pilasters between which are set multi-light flush-mullioned upper level windows and single light ground floor windows. These are followed by single bays with shallow arch-headed openings in ashlar masonry and sequences of tall 3-light windows; those to bays 4 and 10 are set between pilasters with parapets rising through the eaves. The rear (west) elevation follows similar detailing but features alternating parapeted bays flanking a central canted bay window with a mullion and transom window below a deep parapet. The red brick inner elevations facing the quadrangle are plainly detailed with 3-light eaves level windows to classrooms and shallow-pitch roofs to the quadrangle corridors. Staircase towers positioned at the centre and each end of the east range provide access to the other ranges, which sit at a lower level. The entrance bay has ashlar towers flanking the rear windows and door to the head teacher's study. At the quadrangle's centre stands the octagonal library, originally the school hall, set beneath a ribbed dome with a low lantern. Six of its facets incorporate wide Diocletian windows at upper level.

Internally, the classrooms retain original door and window joinery, including the inward-opening hopper windows favoured by Widdows. Some windows preserve original fittings that operated the high-level opening lights. Classrooms, staff rooms and the head teacher's study retain original cupboard joinery and fireplace surrounds with glazed tiling. The inner entrance hall area retains wall panelling, and the central hall, despite subsequent adaptation to form a library, preserves much original detail including columns to entrances and recessed areas, with honours boards and War Memorial boards set within a raised platform recess. The hall contains a series of fine stained glass windows, five depicting female figures representative of the Arts, Literature, Music, Science and Engineering, and a sixth depicting the Royal Coat of Arms.

Widdows came to Derbyshire in 1897 as Chief Architectural Assistant to Derby Corporation. Following the 1902 Education Act, responsibility for schools in the county passed to Derbyshire County Council. The county had experienced the greatest percentage population increase in England during the 1890s, driven particularly by growth in coal mining and textile manufacturing communities in the east. In 1904, Widdows was appointed architect to the Council's Education Committee, and in 1910 he became Chief Architect to the Council, though schools remained his principal concern. By his retirement in 1936, he had designed approximately sixty elementary and seventeen secondary schools.

Widdows was a leading figure in the movement to build schools in which high standards of hygiene were accorded equal importance to educational provision. The first major conference on school hygiene was held in 1904, and in 1907 the Board of Health introduced legislation requiring schools to undergo regular medical inspections. Working with his Medical Officer Sidney Barwise and two deputy architects, C. A. Edeson and T. Walker, Widdows developed a series of innovative designs introducing high levels of natural daylight and effective cross-ventilation. His designs, frequently in a neo-vernacular style, were characterised by open verandah-style corridors linking classrooms with generous full-height windows, based on distinctive linear modular plan forms that could be configured to suit varying school sizes and site shapes. The Builder acknowledged in 1913 that his work "constitutes a revolution in the planning and arrangement of school buildings... a real advance which places English school architecture without a rival in any European country or the United States."