Old School House

The Old School House is a building that dates back to the early 19th century and was originally a school, now converted into a private house. It was built for Hall Plumer and features red-brown brick in Flemish bond with a graduated grey slate roof. The structure is two storeys high with six bays, and the central two bays are slightly projected with a pediment. The entrance consists of a central six-panel door with an overlight, while a blocked doorway on the far right has been converted into a window. The windows flanking the door are 12-pane sashes, and the remaining windows are smaller 16-pane sashes, all featuring segmental stretcher arches and stone sills. The building has a modillioned eaves cornice and a pediment, which includes a stone plaque between the central first-floor windows that is currently blank. There is also a blind oculus in the pediment with a restored inscription that reads: "Ex dono / H. PLUMER Armi(ger) / Anno Domini / 1801". At each end of the building, there are brick stacks. To the right, a late 19th-century single-storey schoolroom with stone-mullioned windows extends from the main building. On the left side facing the road, there is a round-arched recess with a keystone that has a blocked doorway, along with two round-arched windows with stone sills and 20th-century small-paned sashes on the first floor, and a blocked oculus in the gable. The rear range of the building is not of special interest. The school was endowed by Hall Plumer of Bilton Hall and served the communities of Bilton, Bickerton, and Tockwith. It closed in 1928 and was used as a village hall until 1973, when it was sold by the church and converted into a private residence.