Former National School

A former school, mid-C19 built probably between 1844 and 1855. Served as a village hall between 1932 and 1943, and a museum since the late C20. Abandoned along with the rest of Tyneham village in 1943; restored in 1994 and repaired in early C21.

MATERIALS: coursed, cut and squared limestone with ashlar dressings under a stone slate roof (re-laid in 2013) with raised coping to the gable ends and a brick stack that has been rebuilt to the rear (south).

PLAN: it has a rectangular footprint and is orientated west to east.

EXTERIOR: the building comprises the three-bay, single-storey classroom and a single-storey lean-to on the west side which has a much lower roof. The gable ends of the classroom have high stone coping with straight kneelers, and there is a chamfered stone plinth and ashlar surrounds to the windows of the north and east elevations. The entrance is in the lean-to and has a plank door and squared-headed frame set within a segmental-headed opening. The north, classroom elevation has two, three-light mullion windows, and there is a mullion and transom window, also of three lights, in a segmental-headed opening in the east gable wall. They appear to have been reglazed and lack the glazing bars which are present on historic photographs. A broad, stone and brick stack rises from the centre of the rear elevation; the brick section appears to have been partially rebuilt, and the lean-to has a single window. The west wall of the lean-to has three small lights, two of which were blocked when the adjacent building (not of interest) housing the generator was added in the late C20. There is a ventilation grille set high in the gable.

INTERIOR: from the doorway, an entrance hall/cloakroom laid with stone flags runs front to back, leading into the classroom to the left. The classroom is open to the roof. It has a concrete floor overlaid with timber floorboards, a raised dais which may not be original at the east end and simple tongue and groove wainscot which replaced earlier timber panelling. In the south wall is a stone-built fireplace with a stone slate mantelpiece. The school benches are fixed and probably brought in from elsewhere. The ceiling has exposed trusses and purlins. The principals are carried on stone corbels and have braced collars with king post and vee struts, and there are two rows of through purlins.

Pursuant to s1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the modern, stone-built generator house on the west side of the school is not of special architectural or historic interest and is excluded from the listing.