Former Blickling School, attached School House and service yard

Former Blickling School, attached School House and service yard

This school was built in 1867–68 to the designs of Robert Bartram. The building is constructed of uncoursed closely laid knapped flint with red brick dressings and a roof covering of red plain clay tiles.

The plan runs linearly east to west, consisting of a high single-storey rectangular school on the west side with a later infants' room to the north, and an attached two-storey school house which has an enclosed yard to the east and a single-storey range of outbuildings.

The building is designed in a picturesque Tudorbethan style with irregular elevations, steeply pitched roofs and tall chimney stacks. Much of its decorative effect comes from extensive use of red brick for dressings, including the plinth, an eaves cornice of three stepped courses of headers, quoins and window surrounds with a zigzag edge, rubbed brick window arches, and banding in the gable heads and edging along the verges.

The south-facing front elevation shows the long side of the school room lit by three large windows with ovolo moulded glazing bars and square leaded lights with margins. The first and third windows have four lights and the central window six lights, with the upper lights opening from the top. The sills are of stepped brick, and a band runs just above mid-window height. A gabled entrance porch to the right is supported by columns on brick plinths and has a steeply pitched roof with moulded barge boards and an open gable head defined by five moulded struts. The front door is set in a shouldered arch surround and has vertical planks with applied moulded fillets. The porch floor has an inset tiled square laid in a lozenge pattern. To the right is the two-storey projecting gabled bay of the school house with tumbled in brick and stepped banding on both floors. The ground floor is lit by a nine-light casement window with ovolo moulded glazing bars, and the first floor by a six-light window. In the gable head is a square stone plaque inscribed with the date '1868' and the Lothian family coat of arms, set in a brick surround with a gauged arch, stepped brick sill and lintel. The stepped ground-floor storey band continues along the right return, which is brick below and flint above, and has a central dormer with the window below the eaves line. A prominent chimney stack rises from the centre of the ridge, with three flues of decorative shape on plan, oversailing brick courses and tall circular pots.

The west elevation presents a double gable, that on the left being a late 19th-century replica of the original. The gables are crow-stepped with saddleback coping and a roll moulding on the ridge. There are two brick bands in the gable head, a lintel band, and a stepped band running just below mid-window height. Each gable end is lit by a large eight-light casement window with ovolo moulded glazing bars and a transom on a higher level than the centre. The stepped band continues along the left return (north elevation), which has a centrally placed projecting brick chimney stack with brick zigzag quoins and oversailing brick courses. The east gable end of the infants' room has the same treatment as the west except it is blind and has a similar recess in the gable head, presumably for a date stone that was never added. A small flat-roofed projection providing an entrance and cloakroom has a plank and batten door on the east side and a 20th-century metal framed window on the north side.

The north elevation, from the left, consists of the projecting gabled bay of the house with tumbled in brick and two stepped storey bands. On the ground floor is a back door with two lower panels and nine lights above with a gauged brick arch. To the right is a three-light casement window with a stepped sill, a similar window above, and a date stone of '1867' in the gable head in a similar surround to that already described. What was formerly a recessed area between this gabled bay and the infants' room has been infilled by a mid-20th-century range, providing a kitchen and WCs. It has a catslide roof and is lit by two two-light casements with a vertical plank door in between. This addition has subsumed what was formerly a projecting chimney stack which has a broached plinth on a base from which rises a circular shaft embellished with patterns in moulded brick and surmounted by a concave-sided octagonal cap.

Interior

The main school room has a suspended ceiling but the original roof trusses survive, as do the panelled doors. The dado panelling has been removed, and the plain fireplace, which does not appear to be original, has a modern brick infill. The small room at the east end has modern kitchen and bathroom fittings. The infants' room has a high canted ceiling and modern fitted cupboards.

The house could not be inspected internally, but it is known to have been remodelled. The original staircase and tiled hall floor are thought to survive, though the fireplaces have been replaced.

Subsidiary features

The single-storey brick and flint outbuilding range has kneelered gables with saddleback coping. It is attached to the house on the south side by a brick and flint wall, also with saddleback coping, which has a central timber door. The south gable end has blocked quoins, brick verges, and a stepped band. There is an opening in the gable head with the same surround as the date plaques. The north gable end is slightly different, having zigzag quoins, a band in the gable head, and a plank and batten door. The long east and west elevations are in plain red brick. The west elevation facing onto the yard has two doors, a small six-light window, and another door, followed by a segmental arched opening with a recessed door. All doors are of the plank and batten kind. The east elevation has an outshut with a small chimney stack and three modern rooflights. There are two doors and a window, followed by another door, and a mid-20th-century bicycle store under a tiled roof. The fireplace (minus the grate) and copper survive in the former tub house. A water pump stands at the north end of the yard.