Former County Intermediate School

Former County Intermediate School

A tightly symmetrical composition in a simple interpretation of the Queen Anne style, widely adopted as an appropriate secular style for schools following its introduction in London Board schools in the 1870s. The building is constructed of brick with a moulded plinth and string course, some stone dressings, and complex Welsh slate roofs on generous projecting eaves with red tiled ridges and a central cupola. The layout clearly reflects its original educational use, with separate entrances for boys and girls to either side, and the main hall advanced from a series of classrooms at the rear, served by a spinal corridor.

The main elevation comprises paired gables with hipped-roofed flanking blocks forming the hall range. Entrances are set back in the longer rear classroom range. Paired advanced gables at the centre are articulated by buttresses to each side and centrally, with curved and stepped copings swept across a central valley. A continuous stone band above the windows bears the legend in raised letters: "Llanfyllin County Intermediate School". Triple windows in each gable are linked by banded stone surrounds and are composite windows with 2 transoms: 12 panes in the upper section over 9, then 4, with the lower section hinged from below. A cupola surmounts the roof between the gables, featuring a swept slate base supporting an arcaded timber lantern with an ogee ribbed leaded cap and spike finial. The flanking blocks are each 3-window ranges, their windows again integrated by banded stonework. These are sashes with 6 small panes in the lower upper light and 4 below. A small 6-pane dormer window in the roof has slate-hung cheeks. In each return elevation, an entrance towards the angle with the rear range comprises a panelled door with moulded rail below a 6-pane glazed upper panel beneath a straight lintel. Matching dormers appear above. The rear range is advanced to either side and contains the main entrances, each featuring a deeply moulded panelled door with small-pane glazing to the upper panel and moulded rail, with an arched head and banded stone voussoirs. The layout departs from strict symmetry on the left side, where there is an additional bay with a swept hipped roof brought forward as a covered shelter. The right-hand return has a tier of windows with stone sills and lintels comprising two 6-over-4-pane sashes flanking a taller composite window like those to the front gables.

The rear elevation is symmetrically arranged with 3 broad gables to the centre, flanked by slightly set-back outer bays. Each has triple windows with brick sills comprising 6-over-4-pane sashes. The fenestration of the central gables has been somewhat modified, with two surviving 9-over-4-pane sashes with brick arched heads in the left-hand gable, and the upper section of its third now serving as the overlight to an inserted doorway. The central gable has a large inserted window and a single surviving original 9-over-4-pane sash. The right-hand window retains the original arrangement intact: two 9-over-4-pane sash windows flanking a taller pair of composite windows with 2 transoms (12 panes above, 9 to centre then 4, with this lower section hinged from below). A large advanced stack sits between the centre and right-hand gables. A lower range to the right in two sections has a roof stepping down beyond an axial stack and comprises 5 by 6-over-4-pane sash windows.

Internally, the layout comprises a full-length hall to the front flanked by small lobbies to either side, with a spinal corridor to the rear of the hall served by the main entrances at either side and giving access to a series of former classrooms (the central rooms now combined into one) in the rear range. Few original fittings remain, though there are several decorated cast-iron radiators with Art Nouveau motifs, supplied by J Deam and Co. of Llanfyllin.