Old School house

Old School House and Schoolroom

At the E side of the main street of Stackpole village, opposite to the Armstrong Arms and adjacent to the modern primary school buildings.

A two-unit cottage converted in 1843 into a teacher's house, with a schoolroom added at the N end. Established as a school by the Dowager Lady Cawdor for the children of the Stackpole tenantry. In 1847 there were 100 children aged 5-13 enrolled. A modern school has been built at the S side. The school house is now privately tenanted but the schoolroom is still used by the school as an additional classroom for English language teaching.

House: Two storeys, three windows to the front, facing W to the village street. Local stone, roughcast. Slate roof with a verge overhang. Tile ridge. End chimneys. The outer windows are pairs of nine-pane casements, in a chamfered frame with a chamfered mullion. The central window above the door is a single eight-pane casement in a chamfered frame. Slate sills. The main door is of two leaves, each of three panels. Rustic porch with timber posts.

Interior: Originally the stairs were at the rear, entered from the left room. Now they rise directly from a lobby at the front door. Old fireplace and ovens in the left room, now concealed. The right room has a floor level one step down from the entrance. The front windows of the ground storey have built-in seats beneath sill level and have internal shutters.

The house has been extended to the rear, with the main rear room at left serving as a kitchen.

A notched tie-beam of a former roof structure is visible upstairs in a central cross-wall.

Schoolroom: now partitioned, but formerly a single room 4.2 m by 7.2 m with a ceiling height of about 4 m below highest part of ceiling. Remnant of a ventilator at the centre of the roof. Rendered rubble masonry with bricks in the window jambs. Large windows at front and rear with small-panes and mullions and transoms. There is thought to have been a gallery.

Listed as a good example of an estate school. Listed also for group value with the other survivals of the Stackpole Court buildings.

References: Inquiry into Education in Wales (1847) Mrs F P Gwynne (ed) Allen's Guide to Tenby (1870) 66