Threshfield School

THRESHFIELD LINTON ROAD SD 9863-9963 (west side) 9/105 Threshfield School 10.9.54 II Grammar school, now primary school. Founded 1674 by Matthew Hewitt, altered mid - late C19. Coursed gritstone, graduated stone slate roof. 2 storeys, 2 first-floor windows. Quoins. A low 2-storey porch to far left, the board door in a chamfered quoined surround, the chamfer moulded and the moulding carried across the segmental-arched doorhead. A continuous hoodmould steps up over the lintel. Recessed chamfered mullion windows throughout, of 3 stepped lights with hoodmould to porch first floor; 3 of 4 lights to ground floor, under a continuous hoodmould; 2 of 3 lights to first floor, under the eaves. Moulded kneelers and gable coping to main range and a porch where there are 3 bulbous finials. Corniced stack far left. Right return: a 5-light window with hoodmould to ground floor, a tall 4-light window to first floor. Interior: the building now has no first floor; there is a C17 fireplace in the left gable wall at first-floor level, and evidence of a stair position to the right of it. Matthew Hewitt, a member of the local land-owning family, left money to build the free school and to pay for a master and an usher; the master's heated room was on the first floor, and the small room over the porch is thought to have been an office for the usher. Hewitt also left money to pay for scholarships to St. John's College, Cambridge, the first choice always to be from Threshfield school. Until 1730 boys were sent yearly to Cambridge, but between 1790 and 1820 only 3 went, and in 1859 the endowment became a gift to the general revenues of the college. The internal alterations belong to this period or shortly after. The historian of Craven, T.D. Whitaker (1759 - 1821),was a pupil at the school in 1774-5 and records 'solitary evenings while a boy in the upper chamber of the Grammar School at Threshfield"; He went afterwards to St. John's College, Canbridge. A. Raistrick, Old Yorkshire Dales, 1967, p164; T.D. Whitaker, History of Craven, 1805, p274.

Listing NGR: SD9975063424