St Winefrides

St Winefrides

A Pugin Gothic-style school building comprising separate boys' and girls' school rooms linked by a short wall with an arched statue niche, and corresponding lodgings for masters and nuns at right angles, forming a symmetrical U-shaped plan. The school faces north-east with the former boys' school to the left (now The School House) and girls' school to the right (now St Winefrides and St Winefrides School House).

The building is constructed of coursed rock-faced stone with freestone dressings, steep slate roofs with crested ridge tiles, behind coped gables. The gables have moulded kneelers above which are gablets with blind trefoils. Lateral stacks turn in ashlar and are heightened in yellow brick. Windows retain original mullions but the glazing has been replaced.

The School House has its gable end facing the road. The entrance is recessed on the right-hand side beneath a shallow segmental arch, with a boarded door. On the left side is a 3-light window. In the upper storey is a 2-light window, then a tablet with the date in raised letters, and a blind trefoil in the gable. The right side wall has 3 narrow 2-light windows lighting the recessed entrance, then a similar window on the right side, while above is a 2-light window under a gablet. Further right the elevation is set back and has a tall stack. It has a 3-light window in the lower storey and 2-light window above. To their right is a blocked doorway and then another doorway with renewed door. The left side wall has a moulded eaves cornice with billet frieze, 2 superimposed triangular roof dormers, and has irregular fenestration. From the right end, it has a small single light with triangular head in the upper storey, an external stack with a blind window at lower-storey level, a single then 2-light window, and 2 single-light windows in the lower storey, above which is a 2-light window under a gablet.

The former boys' school has its gable end projecting in front of the house. It has 3 stepped cusped lancets, an inserted doorway lower right under a lintel, with a small inserted window above it. The original entrance, in a low porch on the left (south) side of the gable end, is now obscured by a later projecting garage.

The north side wall of the school, facing the road, is of 4 buttressed bays and forms a reflected pair with the girls' school (St Winefrides School House). On the inner sides each school room has a 2-light and a single-light window, while in the next bay is a 3-light stepped window under a steep gablet, and then 2-light and 3-light windows. The rear gable end has an attached coped wall between the 2 former schools, which has an arched statue niche in a gabled projection.

The former nuns' lodging (St Winefrides) forms a reflected pair with the former masters' lodging, with similar detail but without a dated tablet in the gable end. Its left side wall has only a single doorway lower left.

The girls' school (St Winefrides School House) has a gable end with 3 stepped cusped lancets, a trefoil in the gable, and a stone stack on the left side behind the verge. Further right and reached through an arched doorway in the garden wall which has 'girls' in raised letters over the arch, is a low gabled porch. It has a boarded door under a segmental head on the left side, a single-light window then a blocked window with shouldered lintel further right.

The south side wall of the school, facing a garden at the rear of the block, is 5-bay with triangular-headed lights to the windows, 3 small triangular roof dormers and 2 inserted skylights. The central bay has a 2-light window with inserted doorway and door below it, and is flanked by 3-light windows, and 2-light windows in the outer bays. An external stack is left of centre. A fixed iron-frame window has been inserted between the outer bays on the right side. A tall eaves stack is at the right end. On the left side the porch has openings similar to the opposite wall and includes a half-glazed door.