The Endowed School

The Endowed School

This school building combines a late 17th-century country house plan with 20th-century additions. The original structure is rendered throughout, probably over local rubble stone, with Welsh slate roofs and red tile ridges. The 1907-9 extension is built in rockfaced squared random rubble with red brick and Bath stone dressings, using the same roof materials.

The layout follows the pattern of the late 17th-century country house exemplified by Tredegar House, with a hall and two crosswings—a plan particularly well suited to school use. The building comprises a single storey centrepiece of three bays with two storey, two bay wings and an attic storey running the full width. The central entrance projects forward as a porch with a key head doorway, panelled door, rusticated quoins and small arched windows in the returns. It has a cornice and flat roof. The porch's dating is uncertain—it may be contemporary with the railings and cast iron windows, or part of the 1907-9 works.

Above the porch sits a three light mullion and transom timber window with diamond lattice glazing under a flat voussoired head with dropped keystone, apparently dating from the 1907-9 works, though the opening may be earlier. The porch is flanked by mullion and transom windows with semi-circular heads, all cast iron with diamond lattice casements. Above the central window is a plaque inscribed 'THIS CHARITY SCHOOL WAS ERECTED / AND ENDOWED BY THE BOUNTY OF / CHARLES WILLIAM, ESQUIRE, / A NATIVE OF THIS TOWN / ANNO DOMINI 1724'.

A timber eaves cornice runs around the building. The roof features three hipped dormers with two light lattice casements and a metal ventilator in the ridge, dating from the early 20th-century re-roofing but executed in early 18th-century character. The wings project to either side, with the door to the Master's house in the return of the left hand wing. Each wing displays two arched windows per floor and one dormer in the forward-facing hip.

The left hand return of the Master's house contains two windows and a dormer on the ground floor and three above, with another in the separately roofed rear wing. These are all 2 over 2 sashes in semi-circular heads, replaced following demolition of the kitchen wing in 1994. The right hand wing has a projecting extension with three cross-framed windows on the ground floor and a single window above with 3 lights over two, both alterations of 1907-9. A plat band runs between the floors across both wings.

The rear elevation of the original building is largely masked by the substantial 1907-9 extension but retains one circular window, one arched window, one 1907 window and four dormers. The extension is single storey with two classrooms set at right angles to each other, each with its own gabled roof. The street-facing gable has an elaborate tripartite window, while the other gable displays a semicircular but canted window. Plain bargeboards finish the gables. Two tall brick stacks and a circular metal ventilator to the ridge complete the external features. The front is encircled by railings, which are separately listed.

Erected outside the right hand wing is a cast iron milepost from the Caerleon Tramroad, approximately 0.75 metres in height and inscribed 'FROM THE OLD BRIDGE PIER IN CAERLEON 31/4 MILES 1822 C.T.R'. It was recovered from the Afon Llwyd at Llantarnam Abbey and erected here in 1977.

Interior

The planning of the 18th-century school remains virtually unchanged. The centre section housed the main schoolroom, presumably the boys' schoolroom and dining room, now the school library with an inserted ceiling. The right hand wing contains the smaller girls' school, also now the school library. The left hand wing was the Master's house, occupied by the headmaster until the late 20th century, with some later alterations to its rooms and the kitchen wing demolished in 1994.

A stick baluster stair with mahogany handrail leads to the upper floor, where two early 18th-century two-panel doors and a cupboard with panel door and circular head are preserved. The stair continues to the attic dormitories spanning the entire building width, lit from both sides. These spaces have principal rafter roofs with visible hip framing, though the purlins have been replaced and the roof recovered. Some original floorboards survive. The 1907-9 rear addition contains two largely unaltered classrooms with corridor, cloakrooms and associated facilities.