St Martin'S School And Attached Wall And Railings

This is a late 19th century house, now used as a school, which was remodelled from an earlier building. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with dressings of Ham Hill stone, and has a plain tile roof with stone coping and brick stacks to the left gable and right. The house has a roughly L-shaped plan.

The architectural style is C19 Jacobean. The front elevation is symmetrical with three windows on each floor. Large, two-story canted bays on the front have flat arches over 3/3-pane sashes, with 2/2-pane sashes on the sides. There is a moulded plinth and a string course between floors. The roof has coped gables with ball finials, and C20 windows set in raised stone architraves within the rendered gables; a smaller C20 gable sits between these. A balustrade runs along the eaves, with three balusters to each side, terminating at corner piers with projecting cornices and ball finials. The first floor centre has a 2/2-pane sash in a raised and keyed architrave above a Tuscan porch. The front door consists of five panels with an overlight, with the top glazed in a horizontal pattern, and the lower portion glazed in two smaller panels, all with bolection moulding.

The rear wing to the left has 2/2-pane tripartite sashes in plain Ham Hill stone surrounds with stepped keystones and beaded edges.

Inside, the central hall has a polychromatic tiled floor, and panelled doors to the left and right. The straight oak staircase to the rear left features Jacobean-style turned balusters, three to each tread, and a carved rail with a swept and stepped top with turned pendants. The rooms to the sides have reeded cornices and elaborate ceiling roses; the room to the left includes two elliptical recesses. The ceilings in the rear wing have diagonal moulded plaster panelling.

A rubblestone wall extends from the southwest corner of the building to a Ham Hill stone pier, which supports a cast-iron gate (now the school’s rear entrance). This gate matches that at No.26 and was likely a former tradesmen’s entrance. Pointed railings on a Ham Hill stone plinth sweep up to meet the gate pier and are attached to No.22. The building is included for its group value.