31 Old Penny School House, 31A And 31B

This former National School and attached school mistress' house, later known locally as the Penny School, was designed by S S Teulon in the Gothic Revival style and dated 1855. It is also known as 19, 20, 21, 22 St John's Road.

Materials and Construction

The buildings are of red brick above a stone ground floor, enhanced with polychrome brick laid in flush diagonal bands, pronounced tumbling on the gables and external stacks, and over doors and windows. Other dressings are of stone. The roofs are of red tile, some plain and some with bands of fishscale tiles.

Plan

The school and schoolhouse form an asymmetrical L-shaped group set into the hill, with the two- and three-storey schoolhouse to the south and school rooms to the north. The main elevation faces Magdalen Road. The school comprised two main schoolrooms with smaller classrooms leading off them: the Boys' School occupied the wing lit by the large window in the gable facing Magdalen Road, the Girls' School the two-window range facing Magdalen Road. At the rear the buildings were arranged around the former playground.

Magdalen Road Elevation

The school mistress' house (The Old Penny School House, 31 Magdalen Road) is marked by a prominent gabled bay set forward, with a two-storey painted stone oriel window carrying shields and a worn inscription: 'St Mary Magdalen..........School'. The ground floor window is of three mullion and transom lights, the first floor a canted bay. Above it is a blind trefoil panel. The main entrance has a pointed arched head set under a pitched-roofed, buttressed porch attached to the south-east corner. To the right is a two-light mullion and transom window with cusped lights. At basement level the window looks out onto an enclosed area, formerly the services and coal store.

The entrance to the former girls' school (31A Magdalen Road) is similar to that of the school mistress' house. The former girls' school was lit by a pair of flush, gabled two-light traceried windows. Doors and windows have overlights or upper panels with a circular light, rendered or painted quoins, and are enriched with polychromy. Doors are vertically boarded. The larger northern gabled wing which housed the boys' school is set forward, enclosing to the left a pitched-roofed porch and entrance (31B Magdalen Road). The window has slender moulded timber mullions and transoms. Beneath it, the foundation stone, dated 16 December 1855, describes the purpose of the school 'to promote the Glory of God by educating the children of the poor' in accordance with the Church of England, 'in connexion (sic) with the church of St Mary Magdalen'. Internal stacks set below the ridge rise from the inner angles of the gabled bays.

Northern Elevation

The northern elevation of the school echoes Magdalen Road in an asymmetrical arrangement of gabled wings either side of the main range, which has a prominent external stack. Windows are again stone moulded lights with cusped heads.

South and Rear Elevations

A second entrance leads into the school mistress' house on the south gable wall at lower level. It has a chamfered stone doorcase behind a porch and a vertically boarded door. The oriel window on the south elevation has been replaced with a smaller canted window, while the brickwork surrounding it has been replaced in harsh red brick. At the rear is a shallow gabled wing with a half-hipped roof. An external stack is set at an angle against the gable and has a deep chamfer on the angle. Although some windows, particularly at the rear, have been replaced, most are of stone with cusped heads and have cast iron casements with diagonal quarries.

The rear elevations of the school are accentuated by a series of three-light first floor windows with cusped heads, some with stone transoms. Windows are mostly plain metal casements. The formerly open ground floor arcades with chamfered reveals and polychrome arched heads were enclosed to create windows when the school was converted. A series of three-light dormers were also inserted into the south and west facing roofs.

Interior

The former school mistress' house (31 Magdalen Road) has a splat baluster stair with a flat moulded rail rising from the basement to the first floor. Many architraves are chamfered and doors and window linings are similarly panelled. The largest room at basement level of the schoolhouse (originally the scullery) has a hearth of diagonally set bricks and a chimneypiece which has been added more recently. There is a similar hearth in the equivalent basement room in 31A Magdalen Road, originally the kitchen, which was connected to the scullery by a doorway now infilled. Windows have deep chamfered reveals, some with moulded shafts, and some with tile sills. The former schoolrooms have been subdivided and stairs inserted, but retain stone chimneypieces, while windows have chamfered rear arches and tile sills. Roofs, where visible in the former girls' school, are scissor-braced. Heavy stone bosses in the rear range support the moulded arched braces of a substantial timber roof which is hidden above an inserted attic floor.

Historical Context

The foundation stone celebrates the erection of the school by the parish church of St Mary Magdalen to promote the Glory of God by educating the children of the poor. The schoolhouse bears the inscription 'Saint Mary Magdalen National School'. Teulon's drawings, which closely resemble the completed building, describe the schoolhouse as the Mistress' House and are held at the East Sussex Record Office.

National schools developed rapidly after the Church of England's National Society for Promoting Religious Education was set up in 1811. While many were small single-cell structures, some had two classrooms and provided accommodation for the school master or mistress, allowing greater architectural pretension.

S S Teulon (1812-1873) was a well-known and active church architect who worked primarily for low-church clients. His work was often made striking by the use of structural polychromy and exotic architectural details. Churches of note include St Mary's, Ealing (1863-4) and St Stephen's, Rosslyn Hill, Hampstead (1869-71). Private houses included Elvetham Hall, Hampshire of 1859-62 and associated buildings. In 1859, at Netherfield, Battle, East Sussex, and close to St Leonards, he designed the church, rectory and school with schoolmaster's house.