Chapel and Library, Monmouth Boys School

Built of coursed rock faced red sandstone with Bath and Forest of Dean stone dressings and Welsh slate roofs. The street elevation shows two gable ends with the Chapel on the left and the Library on the right. Perpendicular Gothic style. The Chapel comes to the street line and has a plinth, an apron which carries the foundation stone (possibly reset, see History) inscribed 'This Foundation Stone was laid on the 30th of June 1864 by W G Simpson Esq. Master of the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers of London'. Above this is a large 5-light window with Perpendicular tracery, buttresses on either side, coped gable with cross on apex. To the right the Library (originally Schoolroom) is set back behind a low screen containing three Tudor arch doors, the one on the right being wider. This screen carries a large inscription panel with the Haberdashers' arms and shields above. It says, 'This Free Grammar School of the Foundation of William Jones first erected 1614 was rebuilt with the Chapel adjoining by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers of London the Governors A D 1865...', their names, and that of the architect William Snooke follow. Above and behind the screen is the gable end of the Library with a plain 5-light window under a pointed relieving arch. The gable carries a clock and a turret for the school bell. The elevation to the quadrangle shows the gable end of the Library on the left with a similar 6-light window and on the right that of the Chapel with another window as on the street.

The Library is a large single space originally the Schoolroom. It has a six bay arch braced roof now ceiled in so that only the feet and the underside of the arches are revealed. The Chapel has an eight bay arch braced collar beam with kingposts roof with the feet of the trusses set on stone colonettes. There are three blocked windows on the west wall, one of which contains the organ. The blocking became necessary in the 1870s when the Day Houses were added to the school. Stained glass by Ward and Hughes 1879-90. War Memorial by Francis W Stephens, 1950.