Cotton Primary School

Cotton Primary School is a school house and adjoining school built around 1840, likely designed by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin for the Talbot family of Cotton Hall. The building is constructed of ashlar stone and features a steeply pitched plain tile roof with coved eaves. It has a single gable and ridge stacks, which were rebuilt in the 20th century using concrete block. The gables are coped, and there is a single gabled bellcote with a cross on the left side. The structure is two storeys tall and has a three-window range.

The central entrance has a 20th-century wooden porch that covers the original segmental pointed arched doorway and oak door. On either side of the entrance are flat-headed windows that were reglazed in the late 20th century. To the left, there is a blocked doorway leading to a through-passage. Above the entrance, there is a central stair window with a mullion, and above that, two through-eaves dormers that have been reglazed and feature coped gables.

At the rear, there is a central single-light window flanked by two-light windows, all of which have been reglazed. To the right, there is a segmental pointed door, and above, three gabled dormers, with the central dormer being a single-light.

Inside, the rooms are plain, featuring some original six-panel and four-panel doors. There is a stone fireplace with a chamfered pointed arch, and a winder stair with square newels and chamfered stick balusters.

The school itself is made of red brick with ashlar dressings and has a plain tile roof with patterned ridge tiles. It is a single-storey building with five bays divided by buttresses. The structure has a plinth, moulded eaves detail, external gables, and central ridge stacks that were formerly topped with stone shafts. There are three 19th-century conical ventilators.

On the street front, to the left, there is a double plain sash window. To the right, there are four two-light casements with stone mullions, mostly retaining their original glazing bars, all featuring chamfered stone surrounds. Above, there is a box dormer. To the left, there is a boundary wall to the yard, which is now roofed in and has chamfered coping and a plain sash window. The rear of the building has later 19th-century and mid-20th-century single-storey additions.

Inside the school, there are two classrooms with arch-braced open roofs supported on stone corbels, which are ceiled at collar level. The doors, doorways, and stair balustrade are identical to those found in the school house.