The Old School

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BREEDON ON THE HILL MAIN STREET The Old School

03-AUG-06

II

Former school. 1874 probably by Nicholas Joyce for Charles Abney Hastings, widower of the Countess of Loudon, as a memorial to his wife. Roughly coursed squared Breedon stone with stone dressings and stone coped gables. Plaintile roof with decorative cresting tiles and tall ornamental stacks to front and rear; the flues of moulded ashlar. Jacobethan style with stone mullion and transom windows. High single storey on a tall plinth, possibly a basement. The front to the road is symmetrical about the central projecting tall stack.

There is a facing gable either side with a three-light window with mullions and double transoms. Halfway up each gable is a finely carved inscription panel which spans the gable. The inscriptions read 'FLASCE AEDES EDITHA COMITESSA LOUDONIAE DOMINA DE HASTINGS FIERI FECIT: DEUS MEUS ILLUMINA TENEBRAS MEAS ANNO DOMINI MDCCCLXXIV'. There are also very finely carved gargoyles in the angles between the stack and the main wall. On the left gable end is a similar two-light window with, in the apex of the gable, an 'H' surmounted by a coronet. The right gable end is completely covered by ivy but there is a fine gabled bell-cote and bell rising from the apex of the gable. To the rear is a gabled porch with plank door with elaborate hinges and a wing with further window and tall gable end stack.

HISTORY:

The school was built by Charles Abney Hastings as a memorial to his wife, Edith. His name had been Abney but he took his wife's name Hastings either on their marriage or on her succession to the Scottish title of Loudon on the death of her brother, the last Marquess of Hastings. He died young having squandered much of his great wealth. All the English and Irish titles died with him but this ancient Scottish one, which could pass in the female line, went to his sister who became Countess of Loudon. Abney Hastings was created Lord Donington in 1880. He built this school a year after purchasing the Breedon estates of the 7th Earl of Stamford and Warrington.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE:

This is a former school of 1874 and was built for Charles Abney Hastings, widower of the Countess of Loudon, as a memorial to his wife. It is a well-designed and finely-detailed village school of the period in local stone with some elaborate carving. It remains little altered and has added historic interest as a memorial to a member of a very significant local family. It is certainly of 'definite quality and character', thus fulfilling the criteria for listing buildings of this period.