Coed y Lan Comprehensive Lower School, including rear science block and gymnasium

Coed y Lan Comprehensive Lower School

An asymmetrical school building of one and two storeys, built in coursed rock-faced stone with yellow-brick dressings and red brick sill bands and arches, beneath slate roofs behind coped gables.

The main hall occupies the centre and comprises four buttressed bays. The buttresses have shell tops, while the outer buttresses also feature scrolled offsets. The wider outer bays contain triple windows with opening lights, while the central bays have round-headed windows beneath shaped gables, brick arches, stone keys, and small-pane glazing incorporating casements. Single windows light the return walls of the hall.

On the left side of the hall stands a gabled wing set back, which houses administration rooms. This wing features a blind oval oculus in red brick within a shaped gable and a plain cornice band defining the pediment. The upper storey contains a central window with a narrower window to its right, both incorporating hopper lights, and a narrow stair light positioned lower on the left side. The lower storey has central and right-hand windows similar to the upper storey, with a small narrow window to the left.

Set forward further left is a single-storey classroom wing, now used as offices, with a porch on the right side and two pairs of sashes to its left. The gabled porch features an elliptical red-brick arch with Romanesque style foliage to the imposts.

Set back on the right of the hall is a gabled two-window link of one storey and attic, with the upper left window being a dormer with shaped gable. Set forward further right is a three-window two-storey classroom wing, higher than the main hall, with a continuous lean-to across the front featuring an angle buttress with shell top on the right side. The lean-to has a projecting gabled porch to the left side, the doorway matching the porch on the left side of the hall, and two pairs of small sashes to its right. The upper storey of the wing contains sash windows with small panes to the upper sash and larger panes to the lower sash. The right gable end has three stepped windows to the upper storey, the left-hand window of which is cut down to form an escape door with attached steel stairs. The lower storey has similar stepped windows. The rear of this classroom wing has three sashes in the upper storey and two below.

Behind the main hall stand four gabled classrooms with a centrally placed entrance passage beneath a lower gable. The classrooms have stepped windows incorporating sashes. The entrance, sheltered by a canopy, has a boarded door beneath a small-pane overlight with a 1930s metal-framed window to its right. On the left side of the classrooms is an added lower hipped toilet block. On the right side is another twentieth-century projection below two sashes in the administration wing of the main block, with a further hipped roof projection to its right. On the left side of the main block stands a tall three-storey block dated 1939.

The science block is linked to the main block by an open canopied walkway. It is single-storey, built of rubble stone with yellow brick dressings. Roughly square in plan, it has double gabled slate roofs. The gable ends on the north and south sides have three stepped windows incorporating sashes beneath each gable. The east side, facing the main school block, has an attached canopy with cast iron posts and replaced frosted glass. Double boarded doors are offset to the right side and are flanked by windows beneath the eaves, with three similar windows further to the left. On the right side are three windows, the central one taller and carried above the eaves under a gablet. The rear, uphill side, has a two-window gablet left of centre, two tall windows on the right carried up as gabled half dormers, while left of centre is a window with replaced metal glazing and a doorway at the left end with a half-lit door under a segmental head.

The single-storey gymnasium stands to the south of the science block and is linked by an open canopied walkway. Built of rubble stone with yellow brick dressings, stone lintels and slate roof, the five-window front has small-paned mullioned windows. The windows offset from the centre are carried up above the eaves under gablets, while the left-hand window is cut down to form a doorway within an added porch. The main doorway is in a lean-to on the right gable end, comprising double doors with fielded panels beneath a lintel of reconstituted stone inscribed "gymnasium". The right-hand side of the lean-to has two sash windows, while the gable of the main building has a segmental-headed pivoting window. The rear has two tall windows under gablets flanking a central window with replaced metal glazing. Against the left gable end is a wider and higher single-storey wing added in the 1930s.

Interior

The porches each have double panelled doors with diagonal boarding beneath overlights. Behind the main hall runs a continuous corridor with scribed plaster walls. The hall, now divided into two rooms, retains its original four-bay arched-brace roof. Opposite the hall, the four original classrooms have collar-beam roofs but are now subdivided into two rooms. Either side of the hall, reached from the main corridor, are open-well stairs with turned balusters and newels, leading to a classroom on the right side and an office on the left side.

In the science block, the entrance leads up steps to a lobby that opens to the classrooms. These have collar-beam roofs now partly concealed. The two rooms on the right of the lobby are now combined as a single room. The demonstration room on the left side retains its original desk in raked tiers.