Old School Coffee House Formerly Horwoods School

BARNSTAPLE

SS558331SE CHURCH LANE 684-1/9/97 (East side) 19/01/51 Old School Coffee House, formerly Horwood's School (Formerly Listed as: CHURCH LANE (East side) The Former Horwood's School)

GV II*

School, now in use as restaurant. 1659, restored 1917 (date plaque). Local stone rubble; slate gable-ended roof; left end stack with old brick corner shaft. C17 plan intact. Single schoolroom on the ground floor, heated at left end, with cross passage entrance to right. Stair in rear projection rises from end of passage. First floor divided into 2 rooms, the left one heated from the same stack, the right one unheated. EXTERIOR: 2 storeys. Asymmetrical 2-window range, one window to the ground floor. Fine doorway to right with original moulded frame with elaborate carved stops and original panelled studded door. 4-light window to left, probably 1917, with ovolo-moulded timber mullions, original chamfered stone cill and the remnants of the original stone hoodmould. 2 first-floor original 3-light ovolo-moulded mullioned windows, all windows glazed with C20 diamond-leaded panes. Slate plaque over door carved "A H 1659" with coat of arms and inscription: "this school was founded and built for 20 poor maids by Alice Horwood, restored 1917". INTERIOR: schoolroom divided from passage by original screen with moulded planks. Original moulded doorway with elaborate stops blocked and replaced with new doorway. Schoolroom has fine moulded segmental-headed stone fireplace with plaster decoration above: the initials AH, Tudor Rose and Prince of Wales' feathers. 3-light mullioned window on rear wall (now internal) is probably 1917. Narrow moulded plaster cornice breaks forward slightly on rear wall. Heavy moulded timber attached to screen retains some large pegs for coats and hats and may be original. Stair with turned newels, probably 1917. Ovolo-moulded doorway with bar stops to doorway at top of stairs. Larger upper room has apparently original internal porch. Upper rooms divided by original moulded plank screen with original moulded stopped doorway and plank door with strap hinges, similar door with closet adjacent to fireplace. Coved plaster ceiling over both rooms with slender moulded cornice to match the one downstairs. Recess next to stack may have contained original cupboard. HISTORICAL NOTE: the building stands adjacent to Horwood's almshouses in Church Lane (qv). The school was founded by Alice Horwood's will of 1652 in buildings erected together with the almshouses. A new building was erected for this school and the Blue Coat Boy's School in 1844 at North Walk, and the two schools were amalgamated. In 1882 the girls were moved to the new National School (Bovett). This is an exceptionally well-preserved small C17 charity school.

Listing NGR: SS5586233151