St Margaret'S Clergy Orphan School And Chapel

St Margaret's Clergy Orphan School and Chapel is a large school built between 1895 and 1897, as indicated by the date in the central gable. It was designed by architects A and P Waterhouse for the Clergy Orphan Corporation. The building is constructed in stock brick with red brick and red terracotta dressings, beneath tiled roofs, and displays polychrome Gothic styling.

The school forms a roughly H-shaped plan with a symmetrical composition. The main front presents a three-storey block with attics, centred on an eight-bay section. The two central bays and the outer bays of this section project forward under gables. The prominent central entrance features a moulded round-arched opening with a cross window above, surrounded by a hollow-chamfered window surround. A terracotta-clad plinth supports the composition, while a terracotta parapet with lozenge and foliate ornament crowns the design. Within the porch recess are double doors and a round-arched window containing stained glass, with further cross windows in the porch returns.

The upper storeys of the central bays contain six-light mullion and transom windows with hollow and ovolo-moulded terracotta surrounds. The first floor features stained glass with tile relieving arches beneath. Pilaster strips rise toward the gable, flanking an attic window set above brick diapering and corbelling. The returns from the central bays display tall stained glass windows. To the right of centre are three staircase windows; on the left, two bays contain two- and six-light vertical windows with octagonal stained glass panes set within brick relieving arches. Red brick courses run across the front beneath a moulded cornice, with flat-topped dormers above.

The two outer gabled bays of the central block have pilaster strips flanking three-storey canted bays with coved heads and tall stacks bearing oversailing caps. Set back from the main eight-bay section are three-bay link blocks featuring tall sashes in groups of two or three, with cambered heads and red brick surrounds, accompanied by dormers to the right.

The cross wings extend well forward and are five bays in extent, rising two storeys with a tall ground floor. On the inner facing elevations, the left side displays tall paired sashes with margin lights and segmental heads in red brick surrounds; the first floor has five pairs of small sashes separated by pilaster strips, with corbelled-out brick courses at their heads. The right inner elevation has three ground floor tall sashes and seven first floor windows. The left gable end features a round-headed window with brick diapering and an ornamental star-shaped ridge stack. The right gable end contains a ground floor canted bay with three stained glass lancets beneath a steeply pitched hipped roof, with three tall first floor sashes above and brick diapering in the gable.

At the centre of the rear ridge, spanning the double roof, stands a bell tower. The terracotta belfry has three openings on each side, each framed by a double blind arcade, with a moulded cornice and corner octagonal shafts crowned by finials. A tiled trumpet-shaped spire rises to a leaded top. Small turrets with spirelets sit on the ridges where the cross wings meet the link blocks.

Beyond the cross wings, set well back, are four-bay blocks with four gables over paired windows. The rear or garden front features a central gable with terracotta arms, recessed links with lean-tos connecting to two four-storey towers. These towers have paired windows and possess raked plinths and chamfered angles to their upper storeys, topped with tall pyramidal roofs bearing leaded tops. Link blocks extend from the towers to the projecting gabled cross wings; the right wing has a single-storey canted projection on its gable end.

A single-storey passage curves from the left of the front elevation, featuring a round-headed entrance within a gabled porch, and connects to the Chapel.

The Chapel comprises a four-bay nave, a one-bay chancel, and a short south transept, with a west entrance porch and small tower. The west end displays a projecting gabled porch containing a round-headed entrance with dripmould, moulded plinth, terracotta corbelling, and brick diapering. Two slit openings pierce the porch; the returns have relieving arches spanning slit windows. Above rises a tile-hung tower with four openings to the front beneath a gabled head and an octagonal spire pierced by belfry openings. Flanking the porch are two round-headed lancets with drip moulds, moulded terracotta inner surrounds, and brick outer surrounds, set between angle buttresses. The north and south sides have tripartite round-headed lancets within relieving arches; buttresses with pointed heads rise above sprocketed eaves.

The south transept projects slightly and contains two single lights and an upper round opening, with brick diapering in the gable. The chancel has three round-headed lancets to the east, the central one taller than the others, with an upper slit opening and coped gable parapet. Buttresses flank the chancel to north and south, each with a window.

South of the chancel, a single-storey organ bay projects with a gable to the east, which frames a two-light window.

The interior includes an entrance hall with a triple arcade leading to stairs with a wrought iron balustrade. The Chapel features a round chancel arch with a chamfered base and leaf moulding.