Maynard School

Maynard School, also known as Bere Alston County Primary, is a school building dated 1665, which has been significantly altered and extended in the 19th century. It features rendered rubble walls with a chamfered plinth and a gable-ended asbestos slate roof adorned with decorative ridge tiles. The original layout likely included two large school rooms on either side of an entrance passage, with the left-hand room extending back at a right angle. It is unclear if the original structure included accommodation for the schoolmaster or pupils.

The building is one storey high with an inserted attic and has an asymmetrical three-window front. To the left, there is a projecting gable that contains a tall four-light chamfered granite mullion window with arched heads and a square hoodmould. To the right of this gable is a segmental-headed granite doorway featuring roll moulding, scroll stops, a carved leaf design in the spandrels, and a flower motif on the labels of the hoodmould. Above the doorway is a date stone from 1665, and there is probably a 19th-century ribbed plank door.

To the right of the doorway, there are two three-light granite mullion windows that are chamfered and square-headed, each with hoodmoulds. At the rear of this section, there is a smaller two-light window without a hoodmould that has been reused in an outshut. The right gable end has a similar window to that at the front. The two gabled rear wings feature 19th-century casements with four and two lights, complete with reproduction hoodmoulds, and similar windows are present along the left side of the building. No original features are visible inside.

This building was established as a charity school for eight pupils by Sir John Maynard, who was the Lord of the manor from 1646 until his death in 1690. It is recognized as the oldest known purpose-built school building in Devon.