St Martin'S School And Attached Wall And Railings

CREWKERNE

ST4309 ABBEY STREET 876-1/6/10 (North side) 06/09/74 No.24 St Martin's School and attached wall and railings

GV II

House, now a school. Late C19 remodelling of an earlier house. MATERIALS: coursed limestone rubble with Ham Hill stone dressings, plain tile roof with stone coping and stack to left gable end, brick stack to right. PLAN: L-shaped plan. EXTERIOR: C19 Jacobean style. 2 storeys with attics; symmetrical 3-window range. Large 2-storey canted bays have flat arches to 3/3-pane sashes to the front and 2/2-panes to the sides, a moulded plinth, a string course between floors and 4 thick balusters to the front of the parapets; above these are coped gables with ball finials and C20 windows in raised stone architraves set in the rendered gables. A smaller C20 gable with a window fills the space between. The parapet continues along the eaves with 3 balusters to each side terminating at piers to the corners which have sharp protruding cornices and ball finials. The first-floor centre has 2/2-pane sash in a raised and keyed architrave above a Tuscan porch; the door has 5 panels with overlight, 2 glazed to the top, horizontal to the centre and 2 below, all with bolection moulding. The 2-storey rear wing to the left has all 2/2-tripartite-sashes in plain Ham Hill stone surrounds with stepped keystones and beaded edges. INTERIOR: the central hall has a polychromatic tiled floor, a tall 8-panel door to the left, and a 6-panel door to the right. The straight oak staircase, to the rear left, has Jacobean-style turned balusters, 3 to each tread, and a curiously carved end to the rail which is swept and stepped at the top where there are turned pendants. The rooms to the sides have reeded cornices and elaborate ceiling roses; that to the left has 2 elliptical recesses. The ceilings of the rear wing have diagonal moulded plaster panelling. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: a rubblestone wall extends to the street from the SW corner of the building to a Ham Hill stone pier gabled to 4 sides; this supports a cast-iron gate (now entrance to the rear of the school) which is of the same design as that to No.26 (qv) on the left and was probably a former tradesmen's entrance to that house. Pointed railings on a Ham Hill stone plinth which sweeps up to meet the gate pier, have double gates to the centre and are attached at the right to No.22 (qv). Included for group value.

Listing NGR: ST4398509910