Hawkshead Grammar School

HAWKSHEAD MAIN STREET SD 3598 SW (West side) 12/146 Hawkshead Grammar 18.5.53 School

GV II*

School, now museum. 1675, entrance rebuilt 1888, windows 1891. Roughcast stone with ashlar dressings, slate roof. 2 storeys, 3 bays. 3:2:2-light ovolo-mullioned windows, those to ground floor with 3-centred heads to lights, and label moulds to 1st floor windows; leaded glazing. Entrance between 1st and 2nd bays has architrave, pulvinated frieze with panel dated 1585; above, a plaque with armorial bearing and memorial inscription to the founder, and date 1675 (placed there by the builder) under consoled cornice, the brackets with incised decoration, with scrolly pediment and crest; above, an obliquely set sundial in eared and shouldered architrave. Rainwater head dated 1891. Left return has projecting gable-end stack with round shaft on square base. Right return has 4-light windows, with 3-light window to rear wing, which has gable-end and cross-axial stacks with round shafts. Interior has chamfered beams; elliptical-headed fireplace. Fixed benches and desks covered with the carved names of pupils. Panelled door with strap hinges leads to stone dog-leg stair. The school was founded by Edwin Sandys, Archbishop of York, in 1585, and built by Daniel Rawlinson. in 1675. Its most famous pupil was William Wordsworth, who attended 1778-1787, and whose name is carved on a desk.

Listing NGR: SD3523998044