The Old Reading Room

The Old Reading Room in Great Massingham is a school building that has been repurposed as a reading room. It dates from the mid to late 1830s and is constructed of Flemish bond red brick with a slate roof featuring gabled ends, deep eaves, and verges. There is a small brick stack at the east gable end. The building has a rectangular two-room plan, although the central partition has been removed, and bathrooms are heated from the gable end stacks. A 20th-century outshut has been added to the west end.

The exterior is a single storey with a two-window south front that has chamfered brick window openings and a doorway to the right of centre, all featuring brick hoodmoulds. The doorway has a chamfered wooden frame and wooden spandrels with a four-centred arch; the windows are boarded over. On the rear (north) elevation, there are three similar small windows, all with chamfered wooden three-light frames and casements. The building also has rusticated brick quoins and a brick dentil course below the eaves, along with a gabled louvred ventilator to the right of centre. An external brick stack at the east end has set-offs.

Inside, the walls are exposed brick, and the central partition has been removed. The west (left) room has a ceiling, while the east (right) room is open to the roof, featuring king-post and strut trusses. The chimneypieces have been removed from the fireplaces at either end. The building is depicted on the 1838 Tithe Map.