No 2 (Former Hannah More Infants School)

NAILSEA

1066/6/71 ST MARY'S GROVE 24-JUL-73 (North side) 2 COMMUNITY CENTRE (FORMER HANNAH MORE I NFANTS SCHOOL)

GV II* Barn, converted into school and now in use as community centre. Circa late C15 or early C16; altered 1791-2 and extended circa late C19. Stone rubble with limestone dressings. Pantile roofs with gabled ends with raised stone coping. Brick axial stack. PLAN: Surviving seven bays of a late Medieval barn of at least eight bays, the eighth [west] bay rebuilt as school room circa late C19, at about the same time as another school room and porch were added to the south side. In 1791-2 the barn was converted into a school by Hannah More. EXTERIOR: Long single storey range. North front has 2- and 3-light mullion-transon wooden windows and 2-light casements [one over the other] on right, in segmental arch openings; stone buttress with weathered set-offs on left, leant-to porch to left of centre with catslide roof carried down over C19 extension at front and C18 outshut on right. Right hand [west] gable end has three tall classroom windows. South elevation has segmental arch windows and late C19 classroom extension with buttress in the west angle with weathered set-offs. East elevation facing church has gable end of main range on right with tall segmantal arch classroom window, C20 outshut on left and late C19 classroom and porch extension behind. INTERIOR: Suspended ceiling concealing late Medieval roof structure: Seven surviving bays and truncated eighth [west] bay of arch-braced collar truss roof with cranked collars, curved wind-braces, two tiers of tenoned purlins, diagonally-set ridgepiece and many of the common-rafters intact. HISTORY: Possibly a tithe barn, that in 1791-2 was converted into a school by Hannah More [1745-1833], the authoress, educationalist and slave trade abolishionist, for the education of poor children. Hannah More built twelve Sunday schools and three 'greater' schools [largely daytime and evenings throughout the week]at Cheddar, Shipham and Nailsea, but those at Nailsea and at Cheddar are thought to be the only Hannah More schools to have survived. The school probably closed in 1833 following her death, but opened as a National school in 1835.

An important example of a late Medieval tithe barn with seven bays of a fine arch-braced roof, this building is also of considerable interest as a surviving Hannah More school. SOURCE: Nailsea and District Local History Society.