The Old School And Schoolmaster'S House

The Old School and Schoolmaster's House are a late 19th-century board school and associated schoolmaster's house, converted into two dwellings, with alterations made in the 20th century. A datestone indicates the school was built in 1876. The building is constructed of dressed local stone with freestone dressings, and has slate roofs with gables at each end. A lateral stack is present on the front of the school, while the schoolmaster’s house has axial and end stacks. The architecture is unusually ambitious for a board school, demonstrating a Gothic style.

The school and schoolmaster’s house are positioned parallel to one another along a west-east axis, set at a crossroads in a remote location. The school is to the south, the schoolmaster’s house to the north, and the two are linked by a small connecting block. The school's south front is attractive and symmetrical, featuring two windows and a central, stepped stack with a tall brick shaft. Separate gabled porches for girls and boys flank the school’s front, each with string courses, five blind lancets in the gable, and pairs of stone mullioned windows with arched lights to their returns. The original doors remain; the left-hand porch door is double-leafed, while the right-hand door was originally internal and has diagonal boarding. A stone plaque set in a frame displays the date "AD 1876" and the words "Board School," flanked by transomed two-light stone mullioned windows with segmental arched lights. The school’s left return is slate hung and features a five-light transomed stone window with stepped lancets, accompanied by an asymmetrically placed bellcote. The right return has a similar lancet window and a later single-storey lean-to. The schoolmaster's house retains an original open timberwork porch on its west end and is fenestrated with a mix of timber sash and casement windows, some of which have been replaced in the 20th century, likely within original openings. The interior of the school retains the original roof with a king post, curved struts, and carpentry detail. The school’s well-preserved Gothic Revival detail contrasts with the typically simpler design of board schools dating from the same period. The school, known as the Farm School, likely served the more remote farmsteads to the north of Bishop's Nympton parish, where travel to the village school would have been difficult for children.