Details
TA 2909 NW CLEETHORPES BARCROFT STREET
(east side)
4/4 Barcroft Junior
School
(section fronting on
to Barcroft Street)
GV II
Infants' and Girls' School, now part of Junior School. 1896 with minor
later alterations, by Mssrs Croft and Bentley of Grimsby, architects,
and Henry Marrows, builder, for Cleethorpes School Board. Red brick in
English bond with sandstone ashlar and yellow brick dressings. Welsh
slate roof. Arts and Crafts Northern Renaissance style. U-shaped on
plan: central range with cloakrooms and offices, flanked by girls'
section to left and infants' section to right, each with entrance
passage and four classrooms; later classroom added to rear of central
range. 2-storey 6-bay central section flanked by single-storey
single-bay entrances and tall single-storey twin-gabled wings.
Chamfered brick plinth. Central section has central 2 bays flanked by
recessed bays, moulded ashlar sill stringcourse with worn ashlar tablet
below inscribed:
Cleethorpes School Board
This memorial stone of the first school
erected by the above Board
was laid on the 7th of January, 1896, by
Walwyn Thomas Chapman Esq. [Chairman).
Members of the Board:
The Rev. Henry Hutchinson, M.A., William Hill,
William Mudd, and Samuel Osborne.
William Brown, Clerk of the Board.
Croft and Bentley, architects.
Henry Marrows, builder.
Central bays have 4 narrow windows beneath yellow brick segmental arches
with fluted and corniced ashlar keystones; side bays have wide 3-light
mullioned-and-transomed windows beneath segmental arches with 3
keystones. 2-course flush yellow brick impost band. First-floor
moulded ashlar sill stringcourse with a moulded corbel supporting a
central yellow brick pilaster rising to the gable. Pair of cross
windows to centre [that to right partly blocked to lower section),
beneath ornate ashlar relief panels and yellow brick basket arches with
triple keystones, the left panel bearing a roundel inscribed
"Cleethorpes Urban District Council" with arms and motto, the right
panel bearing a roundel inscribed "Cleethorpes School Board" with arms;
both panels with ornate scrolls, foliage etc. The central keystone
above each window supports a yellow brick pilaster which rises to a
shaped gable with stringcourse, ashlar coping and carved finials.
Recessed side bays have moulded sill stringcourse and pairs of 6-pane
first-floor windows beneath keyed segmental arches. Moulded brick eaves
cornice. Hipped roof. Single side-wall stacks attached to roof with
ornate scrolled wrought-iron ties. Flanking entrance bays each have an
ornate doorway to an internal porch, with moulded brick jambs and a
triple-keyed cambered ashlar arch beneath a recessed 4-pane overlight,
ashlar relief panel and keyed yellow brick basket arch. The panel to
the left entrance bears a shield inscribed "Girls", flanked by scrolled
foliage, the panel to the right entrance bears a draped cloth inscribed
"Infants". Upper sections of doorways are flanked by ashlar pilasters
carrying the corbelled stringcourse, with fluted and panelled shafts,
foliate dosserets and finials, and with corbelled brick pilasters rising
above to a concave coped parapet ramped up to finials either side and
with a central finial carried on the keystone above the entrance arch.
Inner half-glazed panelled double doors and overlights with margin
lights. Flanking classroom wings: ashlar sill stringcourse, flush
yellow brick band between windows. Each gabled section has a tall
central cross window beneath an ashlar relief panel and triple-keyed
yellow brick basket arch, flanked by pairs of lower windows beneath
keyed segmental brick arches, the central window flanked by corbelled
brick pilsters and with a similar pilaster carried by the central
keystone, the pilasters rising to a coped shaped gable with carved
finials. All windows recessed, with glazing bars, wooden architraves,
moulded mullions and transoms. Downpipes with ornamental rainwater
heads. Roofs have crested ventilator ridge tiles, with finials to
hipped sections. Inner slopes of roofs to classroom ranges have
dormers with cambered-arched windows, moulded brick cornices, hipped ,
roofs with finials. Right return: 6-bay section with 2 tall
half-dormers with cross windows beneath ashlar relief panels and keyed
basket arches, the keystones carrying pilasters rising to coped gables
with shaped kneelers and finials. Flanking 4-pane sash windows beneath
chamfered ashlar lintels. Moulded brick eaves cornice. Cross wing to
right with segmental-headed cross window flanked by smaller sashes.
Left return: recessed section to left has 2 tall half dormers with cross
windows beneath hipped roofs, and single similar but narrower window to
right. Interior. Basket-arched openings to cloakroom section.
Classrooms have moulded sill stringcourses, roofs with arch braces
carried on fluted stone corbels. Doors in architraves with roundel
ornament. Built to accommodate 300 girls and 254 infants. The original
girls' and infants' playing-sheds in the playground to the rear are
included in the listing for Barcroft Junior School [section fronting
onto Lovett Street) (qv). The first school to be built for Cleethorpes
School Board [founded 1894) with the Boys' section adjoining to the
south, fronting Lovett Street. A good and unusually complete example of
a late C19 Board School, built to a high standard of design and
workmanship. E W Hill, Barcroft County School, 1956, pp 1-36;
original architects' plan in school.
Listing NGR: TA2906709854
