Chacewater Primary School With School House

Chasewater Primary School with Schoolhouse is a National School and schoolhouse, originally built in 1848 and subsequently altered and enlarged in 1861, 1878/9, and 1896/7. The school was transferred to the School Board in 1876. The building is constructed of elvan ashlar to the front, with granite window frames and mullions. The remainder is built of killas rubble with some freestone and granite dressings. The roofs are dry Delabole slate with crested clay ridge tiles. There are rendered brick axial stacks flanking the schoolhouse and a stone lateral stack of 1861 to the rear wing’s south wall.

The building is in a Tudor style. Originally it had a symmetrical plan with a two-room, two-storey schoolhouse to the north, and a boys’ schoolroom to the south, both with gable roofs. A porch was originally situated at each end. The girls’ schoolroom porch was removed, and a rear wing was added in 1861. Further extensions were added to the rear of the boys' schoolroom in 1878/9 for an infants’ room and a smaller wing in the angle between the 1861 wing and the schoolhouse. A classroom for boys was added to the west of the 1861 wing, and a girls’ classroom was added to the west of an adjoining wing in 1896/7. The building is single-storey, except for the two-storey schoolhouse.

The east front is symmetrical with a 3:1:3 bay arrangement. It features a continuous plinth. The central, coped gable ended projection of the schoolhouse has a datestone inscribed 1847, surmounted by a bellcote. Cusped kneelers are present. The ground floor has a central canted bay window with a flat roof and a 2-light window with a hoodmould over. The mullions to these windows were removed circa early 20th century, and replacement glazing was inserted. Each schoolroom has a central narrow window originally with a central mullion, and the flanking wider windows retain their central mullions, although intermediate mullions were removed. The original porch remains at the south end, while the north porch was replaced in 1861 with a 2-light freestone window featuring cusped lights, plate tracery, and a pointed hoodmould. A similar window is present at the gable end of the 1861 wing.

The interior roof is mostly obscured, but scissor trusses are found in the 1861 wing. The schoolhouse interior features open beams.