Dolau Primary School

Dolau Primary School is a single-storey brick building in neo-Georgian style, built in 1927. It is composed of wings enclosing a square inner courtyard, within which sit a school hall and an additional classroom.

The three classroom wings are arranged around the courtyard and covered with hipped slate roofs with projecting billeted eaves and brick stacks over the service rooms. Originally, the boys occupied the west wing, the girls the east wing, and infants the south wing. The wings are linked by lower service rooms including cloakrooms, toilets, staff rooms and vestibules. Main angles are emphasised with stressed quoins. Throughout the building, horned small-pane sash windows are used, although the classrooms have particularly tall windows with opening lights above the sashes.

The principal north-facing entrance is symmetrical, featuring a central recessed 3-bay porch with round arches. Above this is an inscription band in reconstituted stone and a stepped parapet displaying the Glamorgan Coat of Arms. The main doorway has a moulded architrave with the inscription 'Deffro Mae'n dydd' and double panelled doors with raised fields. To the right is a segmental sash window; to the left a similar segmental-headed vent with louvres ventilating the boiler room. The entrance is flanked by 4-bay classrooms. On the left side, the sills of two windows are raised while the upper window parts are infilled with boarding. The entrance front retains original cast iron rainwater goods, with heads dated 1927.

On the west front, the north wing classroom has a 2-bay return. To its right is a lower entrance link with a pedimented doorway, its entablature bearing inscriptions for the architect and contractor, and the label 'Bechgyn' (Boys). The doorway is flanked by a sash window to the left and three small sash windows to the right. Further right is a projecting single-bay office with pedimented gable, beyond which extends a 16-bay classroom wing. Set back beyond this is a lower 3-bay link with a double-panelled door on the left and staff room sash windows on the right. This has a 1-bay return under hipped roof to the south front, balanced by a single hipped bay housing the cloakroom and projecting on the right between the recessed 12-bay infants' wing. The cloakroom has a further single bay set back further right and a single-bay return to the east front. To the right of this return is a doorway inscribed 'Babanod' (Infants).

The east front has a 16-bay classroom, to the right of which is a projecting single-bay office with pedimented gable, then a 3-bay link with central pedimented doorway inscribed 'Merched' (Girls) in the entablature, flanked by a sash window to the left and two small windows to the right. The north-facing return of the classroom has a single altered window and an added stack rising from the eaves.

Originally, the east and west wings had open-fronted canopies on cast iron piers that continued around the south wing. These have been enclosed to form corridors. On the east side the piers are retained but the openings are infilled. On the west side the piers have been replaced by a modern brick wall. The classroom on the south side is offset from the original canopy by a short entrance vestibule and has a hipped roof. It has two windows in the east wall and a window to the right of the west wall, with a door replacing the original opening to the left. The main hall projecting from the north wing also has a hipped roof. On its east side are two tall windows breaking through the eaves line and replaced double doors beneath a tall segmental overlight to the left. The west side has two similar tall windows and a segmental-headed sash window to the right. A lower projection abuts the south wall. An extension to the toilet block occupies the northeast corner of the yard.

The interior is finished with glazed tile dado throughout. Each classroom facing the yard retains half-lit doors and two sash windows, with hinged small-paned lights above all openings at the level of the original canopies. The east and west wings each contain four classrooms, while the south wing contains one single and one double classroom, the latter with a movable half-glazed partition. The north wing includes a corridor providing access to the other wings and to the main hall through two double half-lit doors. The hall has a boarded ceiling with trusses exposed to collar-beam level.