Old School House

WHITCHURCH URBAN C.P. BARGATES (north-east SJ 5441 SJ 54050 41756 side) 8/33 No. 13 (Old School House) 1.5.51 [Formerly listed as Grammar School (detached house adjoining Higginson's Almshouses)] GV II*

Schoolhouse, now disused. Dated 1708. Red brick with painted grey sandstone ashlar dressings. Plain tile roof. One storey and attic. Plinth with moulded stone top, chamfered stone quoins, wooden modillion eaves cornice, and parapeted gable ends with shaped stone kneelers and stone coping. Integral brick end stacks, that to left consisting of 3 square shafts with chamfered corners and stone base and cap. Pair of dormers with 2-light wooden casements, wooden cills on small wooden brackets and steep triangular- pedimented gables with dentils. 2:1:2 bays; central quoined break has steep triangular pediment with dentils. Wooden cross windows with moulded stone cills and gauged-brick heads with raised keystones. Central mid-C19 half- glazed 4-panelled door with bolection moulded stone architrave and early C19 returned hoodmould. Moulded stone tablet above door, inscribed: "SCHOOL / FOUNDED BY / JANE HIGGINSON / MDCCVIII". Gabled rear wing: 2-light wooden attic casement and 2 ground-floor wooden cross windows with segmental relieving arches. Interior:; c.1708 dog-leg oak staircase with closed string, splat balusters, moulded handrail, and square newel posts with moulded caps. C18 boarded door beneath stairs with H-L hinges. Whitchurch grammar school was founded in 1548 by the Rev. John Talbot (opened 1550). This building dates from 1708 and was latterly used as the infants school. Further buildings (q.v.) were added to the east in 1848 and 1926, but the school has since amalgamated and moved to another site. B.O.E., p. 314; R.B. James, Whitchurch - A Short History (1979), p. 9.

Listing NGR: SJ5405141757