Cockermouth Grammar School

Cockermouth Grammar School

Former Industrial School, later Grammar School, and presently office and workshop complex. Opened in 1881 as the Cumberland Industrial School, converted to offices and workshops in the late 20th century. The building is constructed of red brick rising from a shallow blue brick plinth with ashlar sandstone dressings and blue brick detailing.

The building follows an extensive courtyard plan, with north-facing administrative and entrance buildings to the north, which link with a U-shaped main school complex arranged around three sides of a large south-facing courtyard.

The north elevation comprises single and two-storeyed buildings forming an asymmetrical attached range. A central entrance building of domestic form, two storeys high, features a central doorway below a semi-circular overlight, flanked by full-height canted bay windows, ashlar sill bands, four-over-four pane sash windows, and a hipped roof. Behind this is a two-storeyed, ten-bay rear projection from the central range of the south-facing courtyard complex, set below a shallow catslide roof. At the left end of this projecting range, a single-storeyed L-shaped block of seven bays extends northwards and returns eastwards, aligning with the front of the entrance building. The eight-bay north elevation rises to storey-and-a-half height at the east end, below a hipped roof. To the right of the entrance building are two narrow single-storeyed projecting wings linked to the rear of the courtyard complex. At the right end, an L-shaped two-storeyed wing, possibly a near-contemporary addition, is set at an angle to the main east-west axis of the site and has canted bay windows to the south-west and south-east elevations. Throughout the north elevation, the structures display common detailing including multi-pane sash windows, ashlar head and sill banding, and hipped roofs with oversailing eaves.

The south courtyard elevation features a symmetrical east-west range of 6:8:6 bays, with the central eight-bay section rising to three storeys and the flanking ranges two storeys, all with tall semi-circular arch-headed ground-floor windows. Above these, window openings are set within ashlar head and sill bands. Eight-bay two-storeyed wings extend to either end of the east-west range, with lower four-bay end sections, all beneath hipped roofs. The east wing features a glazed lean-to canopy carried on cast-iron columns, whilst the wide ground-floor openings to the west wing, now infilled, have semi-circular arched heads. At the north end of the west range stands a projecting two-storey attached building with a hipped roof, positioned adjacent to a wide semi-circular arched opening within the end elevation of the storey-and-a-half section of the north frontage range, close to the position of a former tall octagonal chimney.

The Cumberland Industrial School for Boys was opened in 1881 by Home Secretary Sir William Harcourt. Industrial schools were established during the 19th century to provide practical education and training for children less suited to academic tuition and were often sited in rural locations. The 1898 Ordnance Survey map shows the school situated within a garden setting on the undeveloped south-east edge of Cockermouth, opposite the town cemetery. The school remained in use until its closure in 1921, when it later reopened as Cockermouth Secondary School. Following the 1945 Education Act, it became Cockermouth Grammar School, remaining in such use until its closure in 1990.

This is an extensive and well-preserved purpose-built Industrial School of 1881, representing one of the most complete survivals of this specialist form of training school and one of the less well-known aspects of the School Board system of the late 19th century.