The Old School House

The Old School House is a late 18th to early 19th century schoolhouse, later converted into a private house, with alterations made in the mid-19th century. It is constructed with a stucco front and painted rubble elsewhere, featuring slate sills and a hipped dry Delabole slate roof to the front, with a parallel hipped roof over the rear portion of the original house. Painted brick chimneys rise from the side walls. The building follows a double-depth plan, consisting of two equal reception rooms flanking a central passage that leads to a central stairwell. This passage separates the rear rooms, which were originally reception spaces. It is two stories high and presents a symmetrical two-window frontage to the southeast. The central doorway is accessed via a 20th-century door and a 19th-century cast iron trellis porch with a round-arched doorway and decorative trelliswork, likely manufactured at the nearby Perran Foundry. A half-dormerheaded niche sits above the porch. Original 16-pane hornless sash windows are present on the front elevation. The rear elevation, originally the front, is symmetrical, with three windows, each featuring bracket-moulded keystones over shallow arched openings. A large 20th-century lean-to porch now occupies the front of the central doorway, and a window above has coloured marginal panes. The remaining rear windows are mostly four-pane sashes, with a 20th-century window on the ground floor to the left. The interior retains much of the original 19th-century carpentry and joinery. Reportedly used as a small school in the 19th century until the construction of a nearby Board School in 1876, the building was evidently an important local feature. Further research is recommended to determine its full historical significance.