Ruthin School

Ruthin School

A long asymmetrical two-storey building in Tudor-gothic style, constructed of snecked rock-faced limestone with red sandstone dressings and slate roofs with brick and stone stacks. The design features gables and gablets, raised stone copings with kneelers, and sandstone bands. Windows are mullioned and transomed in sandstone, containing iron casements with horizontal glazing bars; ground floor windows have shaped heads with quarries to the upper lights.

The school building is dominated by a squat three-stage clock tower at the centre. The tower features battlemented parapets and angle buttresses to the front. The entrance is offset to the right with a moulded segmental-arched head containing double boarded and ribbed doors with narrow upper lights and strap hinges. To the left of the entrance is a three-light window with segmental heads and hollow mouldings, with a continuous dripmould running over both window and doorway. The second stage contains a five-light canted oriel window with parapets topped by plain sandstone copings, supported on the dripmould below, flanked by sidelights. All lights at this stage have trefoiled heads. The third stage has two cross-windows with sandstone lintels and hollow-moulded segmental-headed lights. A clock projects through the string course to the parapets, bearing the dates 1284/1984. Behind the parapets sits a pyramid roof with a tall finial. The left and right returns of the tower each have a two-light window to the third stage, offset towards the front, with a stone stack to the northwest angle.

Flanking the tower are three-window blocks. Ground floor windows have elliptical-arched heads with continuous hoodmoulds, individual lights stepped with traceried ogee heads. The upper storey contains three-light windows with flat heads under gablets with ventilation slits. A ribbed stone stack stands at the left end, with a tall ribbed brick stack at the right, at the junction with the former headmaster's house.

The former headmaster's house at the right end is asymmetrical with three windows and a central entrance flanked by advanced gabled bays with Flemish gables. A shallow porch with a wide elliptical-arched entrance contains a part-glazed wooden door and sidelights with quarries and margin glazing. Above the porch is a cross-window and a gabled attic dormer with a twentieth-century window. A tall gabled bay to the left of the entrance extends two-and-a-half storeys high, featuring a five-light window to the ground floor with hollow-moulded segmental heads, two cross-windows to the first floor, and a four-light casement to the attic. The gabled bay to the right of the entrance is lower and slightly more advanced, with three-light windows to ground and first floors, the former with hollow-moulded segmental-headed lights and the latter with reveals projecting down to a continuous dripmould beneath.

The east end of the headmaster's house is three windows wide. The main range features a gable end to the left with a three-light ground floor window with hollow-moulded segmental heads, a cross-window to the first floor, and a three-light casement to the attic. A rear wing to the right has a cross-window to each storey and a gabled attic dormer with a two-light small-pane casement, with a large brick ridge stack nearby. An advanced gabled bay to the right is slightly lower, with a three-light ground floor window and a cross-window to the first floor. The rear return has a coped truncated gable adjacent to a truncated external stack. To the right of the headmaster's house, set back, is a large block of the 1960s. Abutting the west gable end of the school range is a large block of the 1980s.

The rear elevations are of snecked stone with iron casement windows or top-hung lights beneath sandstone lintels. A tall gabled bay adjoins the rear of the clock tower with plain-glazed casements. Numerous additions were made during the twentieth century. Two single-storey ranges at right-angles with small-pane casements and sandstone lintels were present by 1912. At the west end, at right-angles and now joined by the 1980s block, is a symmetrical two-storey seven-window range of the early twentieth century, rendered and flat-roofed with a slightly advanced full-height porch containing inset double panelled doors. The ground floor retains original metal windows, though those above have been altered.

Interior

Inside the school range, the main entrance leads to a stair-hall within the tower. A wide wooden staircase with flights parallel to the axis of the building features turned balusters and a substantial moulded handrail. The main corridor includes round arches and moulded coving to original ceilings, though false ceilings exist elsewhere; wainscot panelling was replaced in the late twentieth century. The first floor has a canted ceiling with exposed trusses below collar level, supported on stone corbels. A staff flat occupies the attic storey of the tower. The former headmaster's house contains a long stair-hall with a dog-leg wooden staircase towards the rear, featuring turned balusters and a substantial moulded handrail. A small fireplace with a stone lintel stands on the right-hand side. Interior details include moulded coving and distinctive panelled doors throughout.