The British School

The British School, later used as industrial premises and now partly a Youth Club, was built in 1810 by R Billing, senior, with a rear addition constructed between 1817 and 1818. Subsequent alterations and extensions occurred in the 19th century. The building is constructed of red brick with Welsh slate roofs.

The original 1810 section is two storeys high and built in Flemish bond. On its north side are an inserted door and a small window with a brick arch and clerestory. A three-storey section added between 1817 and 1818 is located to the rear (east) and has four bays. Ground-floor openings are blocked or inserted, including a wide, segmented-arched doorway on the right. Upper floors feature wide, segmented-arched windows with stepped, chamfered sills and small-pane glazing. Earlier brickwork displays graffiti dated 1874, 1877, and 1878.

A mid-to-late 19th-century addition fronts the road (west) and is constructed of finely-pointed red brick in Flemish bond, with yellow-brick pilasters defining the bays and gable. Round-arched openings have stone and polychromatic-brick dressings including corbelled sills, pilasters with capitals, voussoirs, keystones, and arches. The central bay has paired windows on each floor, with the ground-floor window converted into a door and decorative lozenges. Outer bays have decorative panels instead of windows on the upper floor. The left return features windows with two and one lights on the ground floor, and a three-light window above with a chamfered brick sill.

A further mid-to-late 19th-century addition at the east (rear) end stands at right angles and is two storeys high, with a loft. The north side has three bricked-up lunettes to the ground floor, one now a window, and an inserted fire-escape door on the first floor, along with a small-pane loft window. The rear elevation includes paired, wide, segmental arched openings with doors and small-pane metal windows, and four large segmental arched windows with similar glazing and stone sills, stepped eaves and raised verges.

The interior of the 1810 section has board-lined walls, some boarded partitions, and braced wooden queen-post roof trusses. A later staircase leads to the first floor of the front block. The 1817-18 section has a metal column supporting a large cross-beam on the ground floor, and roof trusses similar to those in the 1810 section (likely reused after the roof was raised). Former gas lighting piping remains throughout.

The school was established in 1809, initially operating in temporary accommodation. It was built to the recommendations of Joseph Lancaster, a figure in educational reform, and is believed to be the oldest surviving such school in Britain. The 1817-18 addition provided accommodation for girls, which had previously been for boys only.