The Court School including attached chapel

The Court School including attached chapel

This is a residence built in the simple classical style, comprising a 4-bay 2-storey front with attic storey. It is constructed of snecked rock-faced stone beneath a hipped slate roof, with red brick chimney stacks and red brick and freestone dressings, including brick quoins and plinth. The building is distinguished by wide bands of chequered red and white brick marking the string course and eaves cornice, with moulded eaves featuring saw-tooth dentils.

The windows are stone mullioned and transomed with flat stone lintels and sills, brick reveals, and containing horned sashes. The entrance is positioned to the right of centre, with double panelled doors and a narrow small-pane side-light set within a brick surround with a heavy stone sill band. A pair of curved stone brackets supports a prominent segmental stone pediment with central decoration including roundels. Above the porch is a 4-light stepped window (stairlight) with small panes beneath a broken triangular pediment supported on short fluted shafts with foliage. Below its apex is a shield bearing 3 chevrons with relief foliage. The upper storey contains 2 pairs of 2-light windows to the left of the stairlight and one window to the right. The lower storey has a 3-light window to the right of the entrance, two single lights to the left, and a 2-light window at the far left. A small brick ridge stack sits at the centre of the roof, with a large stack at the north-east angle of the roof pitch. Two late 20th century flat-roofed attic dormers with 3-light uPVC windows have been added.

The former chapel adjoins the right side of the building with an advanced apse to the front. It is single-storey, rendered and lined with a flat roof, except for a pyramidal rooflet towards the centre. Stone dressings include a plinth, wide moulded cornice, and pilasters with fluted and foliate capitals between windows with flat heads and 20th century wooden glazing. Three windows light the apse; there were formerly three windows to the west side, though that to the right is now obscured by a small lean-to. A large steel fire-escape staircase leads over the roof to the upper storey of the house. The south addition to the chapel is roughcast with a hipped roof to the west end.

The east end of the house features a central doorway with an inset half-glazed panelled door reached by concrete steps, with a small-pane side-light immediately to the left. Above is a tall stairlight to the back staircase, which cuts through the chequered string course. This is a 2-light window with small panes. The upper storey has a small light to the right of the stairlight with small panes to the upper sash, and mid to late 20th century windows with concrete lintels to the far right and left of the stairlight. To the lower storey left is a lean-to with boarded door. To the rear, the chequered band to the eaves cornice continues, though that to the string course is narrower. Three 2-light windows are grouped towards the centre of the upper storey, with further windows flanking these. Two attic dormers matching those at the front and two small brick stacks are positioned to the left. Three large windows light the lower storey, featuring segmental heads and brick surrounds with large-pane wooden glazing. Some are altered; the right window is partially converted to a doorway leading onto a terrace now used as a playground. The rear of the chapel extension features a canted bay to the left with pyramidal roof and 2-light windows with quarry glazing above the transoms, and a door to the right. The playground is retained by a snecked stone wall with late 20th century brick parapets, accessed by two flights of steps with steel railings supported on four round arches of stone and brick.

Internally, the front entrance opens onto an open-well wooden staircase to the left, featuring barleysugar balusters, moulded handrails, and large shaped and tapering newel posts. A short corridor leads to a longer corridor at right angles, which has a decorated corbelled ceiling cornice with rooms leading off through wood panelled doors. At the far left is a back staircase. To the right, the corridor leads to the former chapel, now used as an assembly hall. This space features a vaulted roof raised to the centre with vertical ribs decorated with flower bosses. The chapel contains ornate door surrounds with foliated capitals, wooden wainscot with small panels, and Art Nouveau-style stained glass to the apse. A former fireplace in the north wall is now infilled. A wide shallow arch on corbels to the south end leads to the extension with its canted bay, now divided off by a screen.