Former Church Institute

The Former Church Institute is a house that was used as a school in the 18th and 19th centuries and is now offices. It dates from the late 17th century, with a porch dated 1679. The building was extended to the rear with a schoolroom in the early 19th century and underwent restoration and internal rebuilding in the 1980s. It is constructed of roughly coursed limestone rubble and features a gabled pantile roof with late 19th-century brick ridge and end stacks. The building has an L-plan layout, with an early 19th-century rear left wing. It is two storeys high and has a four-window range. Timber lintels are present over 20th-century two-light casements, with those on the first floor set in gabled half dormers. The front features a 1980s door with a timber porch that has a central pendentive, strapwork carving, and the date 1679. The early 19th-century one-storey rear extension has two bays and segmental brick arches over 1980s replica sashes and a door. The interior was rebuilt in the 1980s. In 1724, John Attwells left a legacy of £500 to establish a Free School in Thornbury, which merged with the grammar school in 1879 and was used as a Church Institute in the 20th century. Kinsmill Grove, who was the treasurer of the Trustees in the early 19th century, was responsible for the school's extension.