Big School, approximately 50 metres to north west of Chapel, Bradfield College is a Grade II listed building in the West Berkshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 29 November 1983. School.

Big School, approximately 50 metres to north west of Chapel, Bradfield College

WRENN ID
vacant-marble-owl
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
West Berkshire
Constituency
Reading West and Mid Berkshire MP: Olivia Bailey (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
29 November 1983
Type
School
Address
Big School, approximately 50 metres to north west of Chapel, Bradfield College, RG7 6AU
OS grid reference
SU 603 725
Coordinates
51.44865, -1.1327
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Big School, located approximately 50 metres to the north-west of the Chapel at Bradfield College, is a hall with a library above, built in 1872 by John Oldrid Scott in a neo-Gothic style. The building features flint with brick dressings, lacing courses, diaper work, tiled window heads, relieving arches, a plinth, and clasping buttresses, with bath stone dressings. It has an old tile roof, with lean-to aisles on the north and south sides, and an end ridge stack to the east with four diagonally set shafts. The structure has four gabled semi-dormers on the north and south, each with two-light windows and a quatrefoil in plate tracery above, except for the larger northeast dormer which has three stepped cusped lancets. The building comprises four bays with aisles and is one and a half storeys high. There is a quatrefoil window on the first floor to the northeast, with two ground floor cusped windows below it, and a ground floor cusped window in a small lean-to on the southeast. The south side has four segmental arched aisle windows with 20th-century casements, while the north side has three. The west side features three ground floor cusped lancets, flanked by cusped lancets at the ends of the aisles, and a large first floor arched window in the gable end above with four stepped cusped lights.

Inside, the north and south aisle arcades have chamfered arches and square piers with shafted corners, as well as moulded capitals and bases. There is a fireplace to the east with a large hood.

Local climate

Big School, approximately 50 metres to north west of Chapel, Bradfield College receives an average of 740 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 74% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 64% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 32 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 58% of listed buildings. Of these, 13 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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Nearby listed buildings

  1. Church of St. Andrew Grade II* 52 m
  2. Chapel, Bradfield College Grade II 56 m
  3. B and C Houses, Bradfield College Grade II 64 m
  4. Church Cottage Grade II 75 m
  5. Cray Cottage Grade II 91 m
  6. Church View Grade II 95 m
  7. The Mill House Grade II 122 m
  8. Gatehouse and Bursar's Office, Bradfield College Grade II 122 m
  9. Army House, Bradfield College Grade II 123 m
  10. Riverside Cottages Grade II 181 m