Former National Schools

The former National Schools, now used as church halls, were built in the 18th century of coursed, rock-faced sandstone with yellow terracotta dressings and slate roofs. The building comprises a teacher’s house to the left, two parallel schoolrooms in the centre, and a large gabled porch and a third schoolroom projecting to the right. The third schoolroom has a Bath stone traceried window, indicating its former use as a church. The central range has a low-pitched roof extending over mullioned windows: two three-light windows and a five-light window with a projecting base of a truncated chimney between the first two. The windows have triangular heads to their lights. The schoolroom wing to the right has a steeply pitched coped gable with a cross finial. The left slope of this gable is interrupted by the base of a missing bellcote before descending at a steeper pitch. It features an ashlar, pointed traceried three-light window with quatrefoils in the head. Terracotta quoins are visible on the right side, with the walling continuing to the left to a large gabled porch with coped gables and cross finials at both ends. The porch has a cambered-headed door with a rusticated terracotta flush surround, and a diagonal, low buttress at the corner. A small window is present on the south-west side wall. The classroom south-west wall features three three-light windows, while the north-east wall has two similar windows, each flanked by buttresses with terracotta offsets. The north-west end of the front classroom has a coped gabled porch with a cambered-headed doorway. The parallel classroom to the right extends further, displaying bargeboards to the north-west gable, a brick-framed pointed window, and a north-east lean-to with a small chimney. Rear windows include a three-light, five-light, and three-light arrangement on the south-east elevation.

The teacher’s house has a right-side wall chimney, a front gable with quoins, coping, and a cross finial, and two terracotta mullioned windows on each floor. Each light of the windows has shouldered heads and are recessed under a blank arch with a quatrefoil and stone voussoirs. The south-west side of the teacher’s house has two similar windows flanking a door in a gabled timber porch. The south-east end gable lacks coping and has a similar window on each floor, along with quoins.