School And Master'S House Including Playground And Garden Walls

SX 6493-6593 SOUTH TAWTON SOUTH ZEAL

8/302 School and Master's House including playground and garden walls

GV II

Board school and adjoining schoolmaster's house. Built in 1875 for 126 children; the architect was Charles Pinn of Exeter. Ironstone/slate rubble with rock-faced granite and Bathstone dressings. Slate roof with gabled ends and exposed rafter ends. The central range has an asbestos slate roof. Plan: long central range containing school rooms with a large school room cross- wing at the left-hand end and the schoolmaster's house at the right-hand end of 2 short staggered parallel ranges with a porch in the outer right angle and a short projecting wing at the front. An unusual design in Romanesque and Italianate styles; a late use of these styles. Exterior: single storey school and 2 storey masters house, Asymmetrical front elevation. The single storey central range has 1, 2 and 3-light round-headed windows with C19 horizontal pivot casements and a round-headed doorway to the right with a C19 plank door with wrought iron hinges. To the left in the central range 2 C20 doorways flanking a C20 casement with a C20 lean-to canopy over on timber posts. The principal feature of the building is the large cross-wing projecting at the left-hand end which has a tripartite window with round-headed lights and an oval panel above. The window is flanked by rusticated rock-faced granite buttresses, or piers, with imposts and a large round arch in the gable above which rises to a bellcot with 4 Norman style colonnettes with cushion capitals supporting a short pyramidal stone spire with an ornate wrought iron weathervane at the apex. The projecting verges of the cross-wing gable are supported on brackets and the corners of the cross-wing have rusticated rock-faced granite quoins. The left-hand side of the cross-wing has 4, 2-light round-headed windows symmetrically arranged. At the right-hand end the schoolmaster's house has a short projecting wing at the front with a C19 tripartite sash on the ground floor and a C19 4-pane sash above; set back to the right a round-headed stair window. The porch, set back again in the angle to the right also has a dressed Bathstone round arch. The later addition above the porch is slate hung. The corners of the master's house also have rock- faced granite quoins and continuous around the whole building there is a rock-faced granite plinth. Including the playground area and garden wall along the front of the whole building; it is coeval with the school; iron stone/slate rubble with rock-faced granite coping and rock-faced granite monolithic gate-posts with round heads and wrought iron gates with cast spear-head finials. Interior: not inspected but it seems that the open roof of the hall in the cross- wing has been ceiled. The cast-iron bell-frame and bell in the bellcot is intact. Source: Kelly's Directory 1902, Devon C19 Church Project.

Listing NGR: SX6511293634