Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School

Kesteven and Grantham Girls' School

This school building, constructed in 1910, is built of rich red brick laid in English garden-wall bond with stone dressings. The roof is covered in plain ceramic tiles with exposed rafters at the eaves.

The building has an east-facing main range of approximately rectangular plan, with short wings extending to the north and south containing classrooms and the former library (subsequently converted to a staff room) respectively. A single-storey central entrance block with a flat roof is flanked by the former headmistress's room on the left and the reception on the right, and leads through to a double-height hall. Behind the hall on the west side are three interconnecting rooms (now used as a library) flanked by a staircase and another room. A first-floor gallery runs around the north, west and south sides of the hall, providing access to a further seven classrooms. (The adjoining extensions on the north and south sides are excluded from the listing.)

The principal east elevation features a recessed central range beneath a pitched roof topped by a louvred lantern with a small dome. The entrance block is single-storey with a flat roof and contains a centrally placed modern six-panelled timber door, the upper two panels glazed, set within a wide semi-circular moulded stone arch. The surround has sides punctuated by alternating brick and stone. The door is flanked by canted bays lit by six-light windows with metal casements in stone surrounds featuring stone mullions and a transom. To either side of these bays are pairs of small two-light windows. The entrance block has a brick plinth, a stone string course at lintel level, and a brick parapet with hollow stone moulding. Above the door, the parapet rises to a point and contains a carved stone relief depicting a forest with the school crest in the centre. A banner above the crest is inscribed 'COUNTY KESTEVEN SCHOOL' and a banner below reads 'AD GRANTHAM 1910'.

Behind the entrance block, the double-height hall is lit by three twelve-light windows with two transoms, their upper sections shaped as depressed arches. In the corners between the main range and wings are small projections with wavy stone-capped parapets, alternating stone quoins and two-light windows with moulded sills rising into triangles. The projecting two-storey wings have hipped roofs and are lit on the ground floor by three large cross windows with hoodmoulds. The first floor has a central six-light window with two transoms which rises through the eaves into a stone-capped, kneelered triangular gable, flanked by cross windows. The right return of the south wing has a projecting chimney with a tall brick stack. The left return is obscured by later additions but has a similar first-floor window rising through the eaves, flanked by narrow two-light windows with a single transom. The right return of the north wing is obscured by later extensions at the west end but retains two ground-floor six-light windows with a single transom and brick relieving arches, and two timber replacement windows on the first floor. Some of the original cast-iron rainwater goods survive, marked with 'K.C.C' on the heads.

The rear west range has a hipped roof topped by two louvred lanterns and is dominated by extensive fenestration in a symmetrical composition of nine irregular window bays. The central (fifth) bay has on the ground floor a double cross window with a brick relieving arch, as do all windows not positioned directly under the eaves. Above is a nine-light window with two transoms rising through the eaves into a triangular, kneelered gable. The fourth and sixth bays are lit on both floors by six-light windows with a single transom, those on the first floor being shorter and set directly under the eaves. The third and seventh bays match the fifth except that their first-floor windows have twelve lights. The second and eighth bays have tall eight-light windows set directly under the eaves with small windows on the ground floor (those in the second bay have been replaced with modern timber windows). The outer bays have three closely spaced cross windows on the ground floor and above, a six-light window rising through the eaves into a gable, flanked by cross windows.

Internally, the plan form and internal fittings remain substantially intact. The dominant space is the large double-height hall with a segmental arched ceiling featuring shallow ribs resting on moulded corbels. The hall is panelled to door height with wide vertical panels and has a moulded cornice and frieze bearing the names of head girls, including Margaret Roberts. Timber shields hanging above the panelling record the university honours of old girls. The gallery features metal stick balusters and a timber handrail which, at regular intervals, opens into a square shape supported by groupings of the balusters. Arched openings lead from the hall, some with original six-panelled doors displaying upright handles in Art Nouveau style, found throughout the school. The former headmistress's office retains the original cast-iron fireplace with a band decorated in an interlaced design above the grate. The gallery and many classrooms retain ivory tiled dados with green banding at the top and bottom, though in some rooms this has been painted over. No original library or laboratory fittings survive, though there are fitted cupboards and shelves of interest in the north-east corner of the gallery. The gallery and corridors have parquet floors, while the hall and classrooms are carpeted, possibly covering parquet flooring.

The school lodge and former stables to Harrowby House (since converted for use as the school shop) are excluded from the listing.