Old School House

The Old School House is a house, formerly a school, dating to 1844, with subsequent additions and alterations in 1879 and 1893. The school closed in 1957 and was converted to a private house. The building is constructed of local flint rubble, roughly laid, with the front likely originally having a similar appearance to its south-western side, which is plastered and lightly incised as ashlar. Stone rubble stacks are topped with 20th-century brick, and the roof is slate, formerly thatched.

The original school faced southeast. The main block, built in 1844, was a single large room heated by a stove. Following conversion to a house in 1958, internal partitions were added, creating two rooms heated by a lateral stack at the rear and a gable end stack; these partitions were later removed in 1975. In 1879, the school was enlarged with a single-room infants’ classroom at the rear. A porch/cloakroom was added to the front and a lean-to storeroom to the rear of the infants’ classroom in 1893. The main block is two storeys high, while the later additions are single-storey.

The original front was symmetrical with a three-window arrangement around a central arch-headed doorway. The 1893 porch was built off-centre, disrupting this symmetry. The porch now contains 20th-century French windows, and the original arch head of the front doorway has been blocked. The windows are original, with pointed arch heads and timber frames with Y-tracery. The ground-floor windows have thicker glazing bars. A Beerstone plaque to the right of the porch is inscribed "BUILT AD 1844." The roof is gable-ended. A late 19th-century plank door with overlight, and a 20th-century conservatory, now mark the main entrance on the south-west end. There is a 1879 window in the north-east end with a brick pointed arch but without Y-tracery. The rear extensions incorporate 20th-century casement windows, some with glazing bars, and lean-to roofs. The interior reflects alterations made during the 1958 renovation, although some 19th-century joinery detail remains. The roof was not inspected. The School House was built on the site of the former parish Poor House.