The Old School House

The Old School House is a school and schoolmaster's house, dating to 1864, located on Alston Lane in Churston Ferrers, near Brixham. It has been converted into two separate houses. The building is constructed of coursed, squared Devonian limestone rubble with large dressed quoins of the same material, and has slate roofs. A large red-brick chimney with projecting top brick courses and five round pots is situated on the ridge of the house, while a similar chimney adjoins the house on the front wall of the school.

The house is double-fronted and features a two-window facade with a centre doorway having a shallow segmental arch and chamfered jambs and cornice. A plank door with strap-hinges is set within the opening. To the right is a window with a chamfered surround and cornice, a two-light wood casement with six panes per light. To the left, a square bay window has a pent roof, and a single large window incorporating a plain three-light wood casement with six panes per light. The garret has two dormer gables of slightly differing design, with plain bargeboards and windows with chamfered surrounds. Wood casements, two lights to the left and one to the right, each with two panes per light, are also present.

The school forms an L-shaped block, abutting the house; its gable faces the Brixham road. A large gabled wing of the school contains two tall chamfered windows; the glazing is a late 20th-century small-paned wood design, reflecting an upper floor insertion. A stone plaque in the gable displays a monogram, likely that of Lord Churston, with a coronet above and the date 1864. An entrance porch is situated in the angle of the L, with a plank door and strap-hinges facing Alston Lane, and a chamfered window with a two-light wood casement and four panes per light facing the Brixham road. A wooden bell-turret with a pitched slated roof is visible on the roof. A large, slate-hung dormer was added to the right-hand section of the school in the late 20th century. This section has two pairs of chamfered windows flanking a chimney-breast with offsets; these contain two-light wood casements with six panes per light, and is abutted by a small original lean-to. The lean-to has a plank door facing Alston Lane and a chamfered window facing Brixham Road, the latter containing a three-light wood casement with four panes per light. The garden walls and railings are listed separately.