Queen Mary'S Grammar School Buildings

WALSALL

1690/0/10053 LICHFIELD STREET 27-MAY-05 Queen Mary's Grammar School Buildings

II School. 1850. Edward Adams. Red Flemish bond brick with stone dressings and a plain tile roof. "Tudorbethan". I-shaped plan of 2 and 3 storeys with central schoolroom range. The entrance front is symmetrical to the road with 5 central bays. These have 4-centered arches to the ground floor with hood moulds which originally formed an open colonnade, but were glazed in the C20. Above are the large cross-windows of the school room with ashlar surrounds and 4-centered heads to the lights which are connected by a continuous hood-mould. Below the central window is a stone plaque which states in relief in Gothic script: "The Grammar School/founded by Queen Mary/AD 1554./Rebuilt/AD 1849." There is a brick parapet to the top of the wall with a gablet above each bay. This central block has a seperate longitudinal roof with shaped gables at either side which have large chimney stacks to their centres. Slightly projecting at either side are 3-storey wings which each have 2 shaped gables facing the road. Contemporary etchings show that the wings were originally similar and followed the pattern of the former headmaster's house in the left hand wing which has a central doorway with 4-centered head flanked by 2-light casements. To the first floor are similar windows at either side of a narrow single-light and to the second floor are 2 similar windows at either side of a diamond-shaped light. The right wing now has two floors and 2 long windows to either side of a central, single light. There is a substantial wing to the rear added in the later C19 which is not included with this item and a C20 metal-clad stair tower which is similarly excluded. The rear has several, original, metal-framed lattice windows. Interior: The former headmaster's house has cornicing to two ground floor rooms and central ceiling roses. The colonnade has been converted to a canteen. The Schoolroom at first floor level has a panelled roof with braces consisting of corbels supporting wall posts and arched braces connected to scissor beams. History: A boy's grammar school was founded in 1554 and endowed with some 300 acres. In 1838 the school was divided into two parts with the grammar school accompanied by a commercial school. From 1847 the school occupied the grandstand on the town's racecourse and then in 1850 moved to the present premises designed by Edward Adams, a local architect and former pupil of the school. In 1873 the school's property was vested in the charity commissioners and it became non-denominational. From this same date girls were educated in an adjacent building called Queen Mary's High School for Girls. In 1965 a separate boys' school was built at Mayfield and the buildings which are the subject of this application were handed over to the girls' school. Source: Victoria County History, Staffordshire, Vol VI, pp. 174-176.