School House, formerly Silfield School and attached teacher's house

School House, formerly Silfield School and attached teacher's house

A small rural Board School built in 1876 in Gothic style, with an attached teacher's dwelling added in 1880. The buildings have been converted to form a single dwelling in the late 20th century.

The building is constructed of red brick with light coloured brick banding, ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof covering.

The school building is cruciform in plan, formed from north, central and south classrooms, with the teacher's house extending northwards from the north classroom. The school is largely single storey, but the house is two storeys with its rear elevation extending into the former north classroom at upper floor level.

The school's east elevation has an advanced gable and an integral entrance doorway to the north side beneath a catslide roof. The side wall of the entrance doorway abuts the south gable of the teacher's house which advances eastwards beyond the school frontage. The advanced gable rises from a shallow brick plinth and incorporates a tall pointed arch-headed three-light mullioned window with staggered transoms and cusped heads to the individual lights. The arch is formed of rubbed bricks which increase in length towards the pointed arch head, and is delineated by a band of blue brick. The gable apex incorporates a small quatrefoil light beneath an arched head of alternating rubbed brick and ashlar voussoirs. The gable verges are decorated with dog-toothed brickwork which extends over the adjacent entrance doorway. This has a shallow pointed-arched head, flanked by decorative corbelled brickwork. This pattern of decoration is repeated on the return wall to the main gable and the east side wall of the south classroom, both of which are devoid of openings. The south classroom gable has an altered double doorway at ground floor level, above which is a two-light mullioned window, each light with a cusped head. Both door and window openings sit beneath shallow segmental arches.

The west elevation incorporates gabled entrance porches which flank an advanced central gable. This gable has a three-light window in which the detail of the opening to the east elevation is repeated, but its apex also supports a small bellcote. The two porches are of two different but similar designs, the north porch repeating the detailing of the east elevation entrance, whilst the south porch has simplified detailing and a concrete lintel to the door opening, suggesting later modification or partial rebuilding. The set-back wall to the right of the south porch has a tall three-light window of matching form to those previously described. To the left of the north porch, a 20th century flat-roofed extension has been built against the side wall of the north classroom, and the tall three-light window to its north gable has been altered to form upper and lower openings, the sill of the opening relocated at the upper level, the mullions truncated and a 21st century three-light window inserted below a flat brick head.

The attached teacher's house is two storeys and three bays, with a central doorway beneath a shallow pointed arch, flanked by stacked two-light mullioned windows with flat brick heads and stone sills. The window frames are mostly 21st century replacements. There is a single ridge chimney stack to the north gable.

The interior of the school remains largely unaltered except for the insertion of a mezzanine floor in part of the former south classroom, now a sitting room. The former central classroom survives as a single open space now used as a kitchen and dining room. A wide half-glazed sliding door separates the central area from the sitting room, which retains a 19th century hearth in its north-east corner. The south porch is now used as a larder, whilst the north porch remains open to the exterior. Interior doorways with pointed-arched heads have been retained throughout, together with vertically boarded wainscotting. The lower sections of arch-braced roof trusses remain visible, rising from corbels set at door head height. The interior of the teacher's house has undergone some remodelling to connect it internally both with the former school and with the extension to the north, but the original plan remains legible, with a straight flight of stairs to the central bay. There are also some plain four-panel doors and domestic hearth surrounds to the ground floor rooms.