School House

The building comprises three houses, originally a Corporation School and schoolmaster’s house, dating to 1724. It was altered in the early 19th century. The building is constructed of rendered brick with a hipped roof covered in plain clay tiles. It has two storeys with attics and features a parapeted front and a northwest flank.

The school house section has two 20th-century double-hung sash windows with small panes on each floor, and a central 20th-century door surround. Above the windows is a blind recess containing a painted plaster crest of the founder, Sir Humphrey Parsons, along with a Latin inscription. Houses numbered 42 and 44 have similar double-hung sash windows and each has an arch-headed recessed door with a fanlight. The doors feature chamfered jambs, heavy impost blocks with a moulded base, six moulded panels, and reeded surrounds. A single, large, central rendered stack is present, and houses numbered 42 and 44 each have a hipped dormer behind the parapet. Various 2 and 3-storey rear extensions exist, including a 3-storey tower with a slated hipped roof and cast-iron balconies in a Regency style.

The interior of number 42 includes a staircase of the typical Harwich style, with turned balusters. The entrance corridor features an elaborate ceiling composed of seven plaster cross-vaults.