28, Court Barton

ILMINSTER

ST3614 COURT BARTON 1939-1/7/18 (East side) 23/09/50 No.28 (Formerly Listed as: COURT BARTON (East side) The Old Library and No.2)

GV II*

Formerly known as: No.2 Girls' Grammar School COURT BARTON. Grammar School, now a dwelling. c1586, altered c1840 and c1980. Ham Hill stone ashlar with a double-pitch slate roof. Originally a single-unit plan, it was doubled c1840. Single-storey with attic; 4-window range. 2-storeys to the rear. 3 very large windows to the left of the facade are 4-light with ovolo-moulded stone mullions and transoms and C19 cast-iron lights with small panes. Over the door to the right is a 2-light mullioned window with similar lights. The entrance-door, to a lobby shared by No.29 to the right, has a Tudor arch with foliate spandrels. Semicircular stone sundial dated 1586 on a bracket. INTERIOR: The schoolroom remains full-height, the mullions and transoms of the window are unpainted and some of the glass has C18 and C19 schoolroom graffiti. The large window to the right now lights a c1980 staircase. A sky-light with margin panes in the roof-valley lights the stairs; the rear range has 6-panel doors and 8/8-pane sashes. HISTORY: In 1549 Humphrey Walrond and Henry Greenfylde, both of Sea, purchased a building on the site (then Charity Land) and conveyed it to a body of Trustees. The schoolhouse was constructed c1584 and there may have been early alterations. Between 1822 and 1855 the Rev. John Allen brought great prestige to the school and it was renowned for preparing boys for Eton. In 1873 'religious disabilities' were removed; it was no longer mandatory to have a clergyman as headmaster, and the institution of a new school, The Greenfylde School (qv), on church lands to the south began. In 1878 the old building became a grammar school for girls. A plaque to commemorate this is part of the wall (qv) fronting the building, listed separately. (VCH: Somerset: 452).

Listing NGR: ST3603714614