Old Schoolhouse

The Old Schoolhouse is a former charity school dated 1705, marked by a Latin inscription on the front that commemorates its founding by Sir James Calthorpe. The building has two storeys and attics, featuring a colour-washed brick front with flint and red brick dressings on the sides and rear. It includes a string course, stone copings on the gable ends, and a plaintiled roof. There are four windows, which are 20th-century casement windows with hood-moulds, and four dormers with hipped roofs. The central entrance has a six-panelled door. At the rear, there is a later two-storey wing made of red brick. In 1692, Sir James Calthorpe conveyed the property for the maintenance of a school for six poor boys aged between 7 and 14 years from Ampton and nearby parishes. The endowment was later increased by additional bequests, allowing for more pupils, who wore blue caps and blue coats with the monogram 'J.C.' on the front. The Latin inscription translates to "In the year 1705, James Calthorpe, gentleman, dedicated this house for the better education of boys, teaching them books, pens, and numbers, so that in the years of harvest, they may not lack hope." The building later became a National School.