Schoolroom

Located on the east side of Stackpole village’s main street, opposite the Armstrong Arms and adjacent to modern primary school buildings, this building began as a two-unit cottage. In 1843, it was converted into a teacher’s house, with a schoolroom added to the north end. The school was founded by the Dowager Lady Cawdor for the children of local tenant farmers, enrolling 100 children aged 5-13 by 1847. A modern school has since been constructed to the south. The cottage is now privately tenanted, but the schoolroom continues to be used by the school as an additional classroom for English language teaching.

The cottage is two storeys high with three windows facing west towards the village street. Constructed from local stone and roughcast, it has a slate roof with a verge overhang and a tile ridge. Chimneys are positioned at each end. The outer windows are pairs of nine-pane casements within chamfered frames and mullions. A single eight-pane casement in a chamfered frame is located centrally above the front door. Slate sills are present, and a two-leaf door, each panelled in three sections, provides access to a rustic porch supported by timber posts.

Originally, the staircase was positioned at the rear, accessible from the room on the left. It now rises directly from a lobby at the front door. An old fireplace and ovens are concealed within the left room, while the right room has a floor level one step below the entrance. The ground floor windows have built-in seats beneath the window sills and feature internal shutters. A rear extension has been added, with the main room on the left now serving as a kitchen. An upstairs room reveals a notched tie-beam from a former roof structure within a central cross-wall.

The schoolroom, now partitioned, was formerly a single room measuring 4.2 meters by 7.2 meters, with a ceiling height of approximately 4 meters at its highest point. A remnant of a ventilator remains at the centre of the roof. The walls are of rendered rubble masonry with brick window jambs. Large windows with small panes, mullions, and transoms are positioned at both the front and rear. There’s evidence suggesting a gallery once existed.

The building is listed as a good example of an estate school and also for its group value alongside other surviving structures associated with Stackpole Court.