Main Building at Howells School

Main Building at Howells School

This collegiate Gothic-style building comprises an original range aligned north-east to south-west, with advanced wings added to the north-west elevation forming a symmetrical three-sided courtyard, and a continuation of the main range to the south-west forming the principal block of a more informally grouped south-west courtyard (the latter probably being a later addition). The entire building is constructed in snecked stonework in the collegiate Tudor Gothic style, with steep slate roofs featuring scalloped bands and ridge cresting.

The entrance elevation of the original range is dominated by a symmetrically positioned but asymmetrically arranged entrance gable with an offset bell-cot, advanced from a tower. The entrance itself is central to the gable, executed as a moulded four-centred archway with a drop-ended hoodmould and carved spandrels. The door is panelled with glazed upper panels, and is surmounted by a coat of arms and inscription. An oriel window is positioned directly above the entrance. The slope of the gable to the right is broken by the bell-cot, beneath which are two-light windows that are transomed to ground floor level. The tower set back behind the gable features a bell-cast roof of banded slate surmounted by a fleche, with three-light mullioned and transomed windows in the upper stage below a moulded cornice.

The flanking ranges on either side of the entrance consist of five bays, articulated by five-light windows alternating with plate-traceried windows beneath coped dormer gables to the first floor. At ground floor level, leaded-roofed lean-to corridor ranges feature a pierced parapet and three-light Perpendicular windows with panel tracery over blind quatrefoil panels.

The advanced wings of 1929-30 are similarly scaled and use the same materials. The ground floor of these wings is advanced as an aisle and corridor serving the hall and dining room within. They feature three-light mullioned and transomed windows with plain blind panels below and foiled heads, with mullioned windows to the first floor. Doorways in the slightly advanced outer bays take the form of shallow arched entrances with glazed foiled panels to the doors. Buttressed gable returns contain a full-height window in five tiers with a blind panel below (with a date and shield in the panel of the hall wing). To the right, recessed behind the dining-room wing, various ancillary buildings in a similar style form a loose grouping around 'Porters' Yard'.

The south-east elevation of the main block is again symmetrical, with a gable at the centre advanced from the tower, featuring a canted mullioned and transomed two-storey bay with a raked stone roof. The fenestration in the balanced flanking ranges comprises bands of small five-light windows alternating with three-light plate-traceried windows in dormer gables to the first floor, and three-light mullioned and transomed windows to the ground floor. The advanced gables of the outer wings have five-light mullioned and transomed windows to the ground floor and three-light windows above. A string course divides the storeys, with relieving arches over the lower windows and moulded eaves. The return elevation beyond the right-hand gable is similarly detailed and features an advanced Gothic clock tower with a plate-traceried lancet to the second stage and a clock in a machicolated section beneath a bell-cast roof with brattishing. A single-storey link in the form of a simple classical colonnade connects to a later north-west block.

The long range of 'Maids Hall' forms the south-west continuation of the main range. It is two storeys high with generally similar, though simpler, detail.

The building has not been fully inspected, but the plan shows a corridor running along the front of the main range, a staircase beneath the tower to the rear of the entrance, and a hall and dining room within the 20th-century advanced wings.