Queen Elizabeth'S Girls School

Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School

Girls' school, dated 1891 with additions in 1938, located on the west side of Woodhouse Road in Mansfield.

The building is constructed of rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings and features gabled and hipped plain tile roofs. The design incorporates plinth and sill bands throughout. Windows are mainly fitted with glazing bars and elliptical arches.

The main double gabled block is two storeys tall and comprises a 6-window range arranged as 3:3. Three large coped stacks rise from the front wall, with a similar stack on the side wall. To the left is a projecting gabled wing with a central double transom cross casement beneath a label mould, and below are three windows, the central one a casement. The left return features a large canted oriel window with hipped roof.

The single-storey entrance block to the left has a string course and chamfered coped parapet with ramped flat-topped gable. A projecting central entrance bay contains a moulded Tudor-arched doorway with double door and label mould with stops, flanked on either side by two flat-headed windows. Behind and to the left stands a gabled assembly hall with a double transom cross casement and side wall stack. The left return has three elliptical arched 12-pane sashes on the left and three similar flat-headed windows on the right.

To the right of the main block is a hipped entrance bay, two storeys high, with three small first-floor windows arranged in a triangle. Below is a recessed porch with a moulded elliptical-arched opening and hoodmould, with a chamfered dated lintel on corbels. An extruded corner to the right has a single composite sash to each floor on two sides.

The former Headmistress's house, to the right again, has a string course and coped gables with kneelers. The building is two storeys with garrets and a 4-window range. The main gable to the left has three tall windows under a common label mould, with a smaller single window above also under label mould. Below is a splayed recessed porch with moulded elliptical arch and cornice, and a moulded inner doorway. To the left are two windows with composite sashes. An angled corner to the left features a composite sash at ground-floor level beneath a large coped stack. To the right is a 2-storey square bay window with hipped roof positioned across the corner, with two windows on each floor. The right return has a gable to the left with a small garret window and rear wall stack. To the right of this is a rear wing with gable stack and three windows on each floor, the upper ones being flat-headed composite sashes. A hipped single-storey porch to the right again has a flat-headed door flanked by single windows, the right one fitted with a wooden shutter.

The library at the rear features a half-hipped roof to the left and a gable to the right, with a coped stack. To the right are four double transom cross casements separated by buttresses. To the left are three small flat-headed windows. A small cross gable is located to the right, with a hipped extension featuring two flat-headed cross casements and a hipped dormer above.

The interior of the library is particularly significant. It has an arch braced roof with wall shafts on corbels and a panelled ceiling with painted decorations and skylight. The inner wall and one gable display large allegorical paintings in the style of Burne-Jones, created by Morris & Co. The ceiling panels and patterned decoration of the opposite gable may also be by the firm. The main windows contain stained-glass panels, also by Morris & Co. School records confirm invoices and orders for the wall paintings.