Winchburgh Primary School, Main Street, Winchburgh

Winchburgh Primary School

Former Winchburgh Public Schools, a complex of educational buildings constructed between the late 19th century and 1907, occupies a large site at the corner of Main Street (Edinburgh-Linlithgow Road) and the B8020 (Hopetoun Road).

The school comprises three principal structures. The earliest building, dating from 1885-1895, is a single-storey, six-bay primary school of irregular plan, constructed to the south-east. It is built from squared and snecked stugged stone with droved ashlar quoins and features hoodmoulded windows and ventilators with fleur-de-lis finials to the gable apexes. The south-facing principal elevation includes a stand-alone gabled classroom block to the far left with a 5-light hoodmoulded, transomed and mullioned window, a recessed roll-shuttered doorway (possibly a former window) linked to a central advanced gabled bay with a transomed and mullioned tripartite window and square ventilator to the ridge. A slightly more advanced gabled porch to the right has a shouldered doorway and small window to the return. To the right of the porch is a bipartite window with a pitched barge-boarded dormer above, and to the far right a slightly advanced gabled bay with a ground floor bipartite window and single window to the gablehead. The east elevation features a central gabled bay with ground and gablehead windows and a large square window to the left. The north elevation is largely encapsulated by the later 1902 extension at ground level, with small 20th-century single-storey extensions. The west elevation has a central gabled bay with a tripartite window (the central light being taller) flanked by bipartite windows and three small circular ventilators to the ridge.

The 1902 extension, built by James Jerdan, adjoins to the east of the original school. This five-bay, roughly rectangular-plan double-pitched extension is constructed from squared and snecked stone. The south elevation features a door linking the extension to the earlier school with a moulded architrave and flanking square windows, followed by an advanced classroom block to the east with two shaped gabled bays containing Venetian windows. The left gable is flanked by bipartite windows, with a single window to the left return and far right of the elevation. A central square-plan timber ventilator sits above. The east elevation is five bays with a double pitch, featuring a central moulded doorway with a round arch at wallhead above, paired windows to the left, a single window to the right, and windows to the outer bays with small windows to the gableheads. The north elevation contains five bipartite windows to the advanced classroom block to the east, with a flat-roofed central section featuring a door and windows linking the extension to the original school to the west, and central steps leading down to a basement boiler room.

The third building, constructed by James Jerdan & Son in 1907, is a medium-sized senior school located to the north-west of the site. It is symmetrical, six-bay, single-storey with a basement to the rear (on falling ground), and roughly T-plan in layout. The exterior is rendered with ashlar dressings. The south elevation features advanced double-pitched gables with paired Venetian windows and slit windows to the gableheads, tall single windows breaking the eaves to the right and left returns, flanking single windows, and paired breaking eaves windows to the outer bays. The east elevation has an advanced gable to the right with two windows set close to the wall edge, a tall window breaking the eaves to the right return, and a two-bay central piended entrance pavilion set in a re-entrant angle with a door to the left and bipartite windows to the right. The north elevation projects at the gabled end with two windows set close to the wall edge. The west elevation is identical to the east with a small detached 20th-century flat-roof addition. Windows are now boarded up.

All three school buildings feature pitched roofs with grey slates. The late 19th-century school has overlapping stone skews, gablet skewputts with gothic detailing, and coped and moulded gablehead and ridge stacks. The 1902 extension has terracotta ridge tiles, flat skews and skewputts, and corniced tapering stacks. The 1907 school has straight skews and coped and rendered stacks.

Windows throughout are predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case with 6-pane transom windows, now boarded up in many locations. The late 19th-century school has 4- and 8-paned timber windows to transoms and mullions. The interior retains original classroom layouts largely intact, with tongue and groove timber wainscot throughout.

The site is bounded by a low coped and rendered brick wall with straight cast-iron railings along Main Street to the south-east, and a low coped random rubble wall with arched cast-iron railings along the B8020 to the east. The rear boundary is marked by a high coped random rubble wall.

Substantial outbuildings and remains survive across the site. These include a flat-roofed rubble storage shed to the east playground, long pitched-roof lavatory and storage sheds to the north-west with original faience tiles to stalls, remains of various playsheds to the north-west playground and rubble-built playshed to the east playground, a large timber-built portable classroom on a brick base to the north of the lavatories and west of the senior school, and a small plain T-plan former caretaker's cottage rendered with ashlar dressings. A former landscaped garden lies to the north-west.