Weasenham Church of England Primary School

Weasenham Church of England Primary School

A school with attached teacher's house, built in 1859 and designed by Daniel Penning of Eye. The building is constructed in red brick with gault brick dressings to window and door surrounds, quoins, and plinth; the roofs are slate.

The 1859 school follows an H plan, with a rectangular central classroom positioned between cross-wings. The exterior is built in Tudor style. The main west elevation presents a single storey three-bay range with steeply pitched slate roof, flanked by the full-height coped gable ends of the teacher's house and the north classroom. The north classroom contains a tall window with a four-centred arch and hood-mould, its lights arranged as three lancets divided by two transoms; this appears to be a modern replica of the original. Between these tall gables stands a prominent row of three polygonal section chimneys and two smaller gables: one at the south end of the central range, the other immediately north of the teacher's house. Both are coped gables with kneelers, with entrances topped by four-centred arches. The two-storey porch at the south end of the central range is mirrored by a single-storey porch to the north. To the centre of the central range is an external stack defined by gault brick quoins, stepped in at eaves level and again below the chimney base. The front of the stack features a carved stone quatrefoil decorative motif, repeated on all three chimneys in this elevation. The stack is flanked by modern timber windows designed to replicate mullioned forms shown on the architect's drawings: the south window has five lights with a horizontal transom; the north has two lights crossed by a transom. Similar windows appear throughout the building. All windows and most doors to the 1859 school have gault brick surrounds with chamfered reveals; ground floor windows are fitted with hood-moulds with stops.

The double-height porch at the south end gives access to the lobby between the teacher's house and central classroom. Above the door is a stone plaque carved with a quatrefoil and shield bearing the date AD 1859. To the south, the gable end of the teacher's house projects forward from the porch. The house is two storeys; its gable end contains a canted bay with slate roof on the ground floor, above which is a two-light window with hood-mould. Behind the foremost chimney between the porch and house roofs are two further chimneys, and a row of three more crosses the roof ridge above the east gable of the house. The south elevation is symmetrical, with a centrally placed front door beneath a four-centred arch, flanked by two-light windows with hood-moulds. Above a storey band are two smaller but similar windows. A dentilled cornice runs below the eaves of the teacher's house, central range, and flanking wings. At the south-east corner of the playground stands a small rectangular building with pitched slate roof that housed the two girls' privies and coal house; one door to the north gable survives, the second infilled with brick. The east elevation is dominated by the gable ends of the north and south cross-wings, partially obscured by later additions, and a gable above the entrance to the south lobby, plainer than but similar to that of the west elevation.

Twentieth-century additions are single storey and built in the same style as the nineteenth-century school. These additions, the playground, and its wall are not included in the listing.

The interior retains two original classrooms, for boys and girls respectively, divided by a timber partition with glazing above, apparently designed to allow one half to slide open across the other. The partition features stop-chamfered recessed panels of diagonal matchboarding; towards its west end is a similarly panelled door with brass latch. The north classroom has a low inserted ceiling cutting across the gable window; the roof structure above likely survives. Chimney breasts survive in both classrooms but no fireplaces remain. A modern sliding screen has been installed in the central classroom, south of which is a plank-and-batten door to the playground.

Access to the lobby is at the south end of the classroom. The lobby provides access to the teacher's house, though this connection is not shown on the original plan; the house parlour now functions as an office. A plank-and-batten door at the east end of the lobby opens onto the playground; the main entrance to the west contains a more substantial plank-and-batten door with latch. The teacher's house plan survives, consisting of two rooms to each of ground and first floors, one on either side of a central stair. The first floor includes an additional long space above the ground floor lobby. The ground floor contained a kitchen as well as the parlour, with a single storey wash house to the east, now a small kitchen. Surviving detail includes chimney breasts with no fireplaces, the plank-and-batten of the wash house, and some plain four-panelled doors.

In the playground, the outbuilding that housed the girls' offices and coal house survives, though entrances have been altered: one of the two privies retains its entrance; the other is bricked up.