The Old School House

The Old School House is a house that was used as a school in the 19th century. It is dated 1611, altered in 1848, and restored in the late 20th century. The building is timber-framed with brick and rendered infill, partly pebbledashed, and features some brick refacing and replacement walling. It has a machine-tiled roof and a 19th-century ridge stack located to the south of the center. The structure consists of three framed bays aligned north to south, with a chimney positioned between the central and south bays, creating a baffle-entry plan. There is a small single-bay framed wing to the west of the north bay. The house is one storey with an attic that includes dormers.

The framing includes three rows of closely set studding from the sill to the wall-plate, with long straight braces in some of the lower corners. The south gable end appears jettied on shaped brackets but has been refaced in brick, and no trusses are visible externally. The windows are in the Gothick style with pointed lights throughout. The east front elevation features two ground floor three-light windows and two gabled dormers with two-light windows, along with a ledged and battened door to the left of center. There are attic lights in the gable ends.

Inside, the framing is mainly intact, with an ogee stop-chamfered cross-beamed ceiling in the north bay. There is a cross-frame between the north and central bays, with a moulded ceiling beam supported on moulded brackets inscribed with a heraldic device. The interior also includes back-to-back fireplaces and a winder staircase in the north bay, beside which is a partly concealed blocked three-light ovolo-mullioned window. At the south gable end of the house, there is a 19th-century lean-to addition, and in the gable, a datestone reads "ERECTED/ AD 1611/ REPAIRED/ AD 1848". The building stands next to the site of the Royal Hunting Lodge to the west of the village, and the quality of the original interior detailing suggests it was a building of some significance. The current entrance is likely in its original position at the lower end of the former hall, with the detailing concentrated in the upper north bay. The building was being restored when it was surveyed in July 1985.