The School House

The School House is a late 17th-century house, largely rebuilt around 1708 as a village school by Lord Orford. It incorporates medieval limestone and clunch foundations and basement walls. The house is constructed of local buff and red brick with red brick window and door jambs and quoins, and features limestone details. It has a plain tile hipped roof. A small, 19th-century single-storey brick extension was added to the rear, originally serving as a soup kitchen. The facade was altered in the 19th century when the original triangular pediment was removed, and the parapets and possibly the window arches were rebuilt.

The symmetrical facade is divided by giant brick pilasters with dentil-enriched stone cornices. A plinth incorporates a moulded stone band, and there are three round, red gauged brick basement windows which are now sealed. The main entrance is accessed by brick steps with low side walls, leading to an eight-panelled door and a rectangular fanlight with glazing bars, set within a moulded wooden architrave. A wooden cornice forms a shallow canopy, supported by carved brackets. Eight round-headed windows, with fixed lights incorporating glazing bars in original wooden frames, are set within gauged brick arches with stone imposts and fanned key blocks.

The interior has been converted into a dwelling. The basement, accessed from the rear via 17th-century brick steps, contains similar bricks in some internal walls and tunnel vaults. The clunch walls, likely dating to around 12th century, with some re-used stone, may have formed the foundations and basement walls of the Knights Hospitlers preceptory and feature two projecting corbels. Historical records include William Cole’s Manuscripts, an Estate Map of Lord Orford’s Estate from 1712, and published works such as Barber's History of Chippenham and Pevsner’s Buildings in England.