Old School House, Nos 39, 40 And Church Hall

The Old School House, Nos 39, 40 and Church Hall form a terrace with two other houses, dating from around the middle of the 19th century. The adjoining school hall is an earlier building, originally from the early 19th century, and was converted into a parish workhouse around 1842. Sir Charles Lemon acquired the property around the 1840s and converted it around 1850 into a National School. Two new classrooms were added in 1895, and the building was remodelled around the early 20th century.

The building is constructed of shale rubble with slate sills, shallow brick arches and asbestos and scantle slate roofs, predominantly with gable ends, although a section to the rear right (south) has a hipped roof. There are two brick chimneys over the ridge of the house. Originally, the school was a rectangular building measuring 23 by 36 feet. It was later extended, probably at either end, by one room around 1850. A two-storey section projects at a right angle from the rear right (south) end of the rear (east) end, and a schoolmaster’s house and two adjoining houses were added at a right angle to the left (north) of the front (west) end.

Around 1895, the original workhouse section was adapted to provide two classrooms for girls on the first floor. This was later reduced in the 20th century to a single-storey building. Nos 39 and 40 each have a front reception room with a passage to one side leading to a rear service room. The building is two storeys high, except for the original section, which is now single storey. Most windows are original hornless sash windows with glazing bars. The west front of the schoolhouse, with two windows, adjoins the rear of Nos 39 and 40, each having a ground and first-floor window. A late 19th-century glazed porch with segmental arched lights and an entablature sits under the left-hand window of the schoolhouse, leading to double doors. The three-window south front of the schoolroom has buttresses between windows, with a wider left-hand window featuring late 19th-century small-paned casements. Where the original schoolroom’s first floor was linked to the wing at the right (east) end, there is slate hanging over studwork.

The interiors were not inspected. In 1910, the school accommodated 107 infants and 165 other children. The property forms a picturesque group with considerable 19th-century detail and is particularly notable for its interesting history.