Montgomery Primary School

Montgomery Primary School

This primary school is constructed of red brick with stone and cut brick dressings and terracotta decoration. The roofs are tiled with decorative ridge tiles and several surviving finials, with brick chimneys. Most of the original timber centrally-hung pivot casements have been replaced by late 20th-century window frames, though a number of leaded glass panels remain in both external and internal windows.

The original school buildings form a linear east-west complex, with the former junior school to the west and infant school to the east. Between them sits the caretaker's house, set back and attached to the infant school, with both earlier and late 20th-century connections to the junior school. A late 20th-century assembly hall and nursery block has been added to the north, attached to the east end of the former junior school section.

The junior school building is two storeys high. Its principal south elevation is asymmetrical, featuring in the centre six narrow gabled bays with pointed-arch windows to the first floor, separated from the rectangular ground-floor windows by moulded terracotta panels. The bays are divided by piers with bead-moulded edges that narrow above the storey band. At the east end, set back from the main south front, is a square ventilation tower with terracotta bands and, in the upper storey, triplets of round-headed louvred openings joined by hoodmoulds. The tower is thought to be truncated, possibly having lost a spire or decorative capping. At its foot is a gabled porch bearing a terracotta plaque dated 1878. To the west is a projecting gabled bay containing a staircase, added in 1894-8 to replace a semi-circular stair tower. This bay has an east-facing doorway surmounted by a complex three-light window with engaged colonnettes, and tall lancet windows to the south and west elevations. A flat-roofed headmaster's room was added to the west end of the south elevation in 1911-13, with a slender, shouldered chimney having a chevron-moulded cap rising against the adjoining wall. The north elevation has five full-height gabled bays similar in design to those on the south, but with windows in pairs and an oculus in each gable above the upper windows. The two westernmost bays were added in 1894-8 and are slightly higher. The eastern bay has four lancets above a pair of pointed windows, partially obscured by a late 20th-century extension.

The infant school building is single storey. Its south elevation has a five-bay western section with steeply-pitched roof; three central gables break the eaves, each gabled bay containing a large pointed window. Further east is a two-bay section with a lower roofline. Three further bays at the east end were added in 1911-13, constructed of pressed red brick and engineering brick with three windows having decorative tympana to each bay. The easternmost bay is late 20th-century. The west elevation, representing the end of the hall, has three tall pointed windows with ornate terracotta roundels to the spandrels, above which is an arcade of three pointed windows with leaded heads, and the gable apex is filled with a blank tripartite stone frame. The north elevation has two gabled classrooms, each with a tall pointed window flanked by shorter windows. Further east, the 1911-13 additions are obscured by late 20th-century extensions.

The caretaker's house is two storeys and three bays, facing south, with a central entrance and small square window above flanked by two gabled bays with rectangular windows. All openings have stone lintels. Decoration is limited to horizontal bands of raised terracotta and a decorative terracotta moulding following the line of the gables. The brick end stacks were originally both tall, though one has been truncated. Late 20th-century additions to the north and west connect the house with the main school buildings.

Internally, the junior school has a corridor running along its length on the ground floor, with four classrooms to the north and the hall to the south. The classrooms are separated from the corridor by arched glazed timber screens with chamfered frames, each classroom having a vaulted fireproof ceiling. The hall is now subdivided to provide classrooms. At each end of the corridor is an open-well cantilever staircase with slender cast-iron balusters and protuberances to the wooden rail designed to discourage incorrect use; the eastern staircase is earlier than the western. The first floor has a similar plan with five double-height classrooms on the north side. The north-east classroom has a fireplace with bolection-moulded surround. Two classrooms have timber trusses to the roofs; the others have cast-iron blades with pierced decoration springing from stone corbels. The first-floor hall has been subdivided and a 20th-century suspended ceiling largely obscures the timber hammerbeam roof, though the corbels and roof structure remain visible above the ceiling.

The infant school interior has a similar plan, with a large double-height hall to the south separated from classrooms to the north by arched glazed timber screens. The hall retains its decorative cast-iron trusses, with similar trusses in each classroom. Several blocked openings are visible at the east end of the hall. A half basement lies below the infant school.

Throughout the school buildings, other internal features include doors with chamfered rails and muntins, some glazed, boarded dado panelling, and various ventilation and gas fittings.

The internal plan, fittings and features of the caretaker's house have been much altered.

Sections of 19th-century low red-brick walls with triangular cast-iron copings and decorative railings survive, along with two brick and stone gate piers at the Grace Road boundary.