The North Block At Sherborne School

The North Block at Sherborne School is a building constructed in the 1920s, with a western addition of 1913, forming part of a larger group of school buildings situated north of the Abbey Church of St Mary. Designed by Reginald Blomfield, it is an east-west wing incorporating an entrance tower.

The west end features a prominent, wide, gabled bay projecting slightly forward on the south face. It has 6-light transomed windows with dripmoulding to both the ground and first floors, topped with ramped coping and urn and ball finials. Recessed to the east is a 3-light window above and below a four-centred headed doorway with shallow carved spandrels, displaying a date plaque “1913”. Further east are two window bays with transomed and mullioned windows, the upper ones rising into roof space with gables. Two additional window bays, likely part of a later construction, follow in a similar style.

The eastern end is dominated by a three-storey entrance tower with three window bays, a passage on the ground floor, and a panelled embattled parapet. The centre bay projects slightly forward from the east bay, which also projects. The left-hand bay of the tower has a 3-light transomed window on the second floor and a 3-light window to the first floor, with a date stone “1923” positioned between the first and ground floors, above a three-light window with 3-centred heads above a ground floor doorway. The centre first and second floor windows are set within a single bolection moulded frame with stone panelling between the floors. The east bay has a single-light transomed window on the second and first floors, and a 2-light cusped headed window above a doorway on the ground floor.

On the north side of the entrance tower, the western bay is only two storeys high and set in slight recession, with a tall two-light staircase window arranged over three tiers. The centre bay features a painted Royal Coat of Arms. To the west of the tower, the north face has four bays with consistent articulation to the south face, followed by a two-light, three-tier window with 3-centred heads to the uppermost lights, and finally, a wide gabled bay with a 6-light, two-tier window at the west end.