The Old School House

Details

SS 90 NW BICKLEIGH BICKLEIGH 5/17 The Old School House GV II School, converted to house. 1841 (datestone) with infants' schoolroom added later in the C19 to the rear ; building closed as a school in the 1960s and converted to a house. Volcanic trap rubble with stone dressings to the front elevation, brick dressings and quoins to the rear block ; slate roofs, gabled at ends ; end stacks with brick shafts. The school was established in 1841 as a National School and funded by subscription. At this date it probably consisted of a simple single-storey Tudor style schoolroom with a porch at the right and a washroom adjoining at the right end. The school-room was heated from a right end stack. At a later date a smaller, plainer single-storey infants' schoolroom was added at the rear left, the roof running parallel with the earlier schoolroom with brick quions and dressings to the windows. The addition was heated by a right end stack. The school acceded to the Grant List in 1869 and the addition may date from then, or may be later. The conversion to a house involved flooring the infants' schoolroom and partitioning the front block into 2 rooms. A C20 lean-to has been added at the right end and a further lean-to adjoins the 1841 block at the rear right. Alterations in progress at time of survey (1986) involve flooring the 1841 block. Front block single-storey at present, infants' school 2-storeys. Attractive asymmetrical 3:1 window front elevation with a gabled enclosed porch at the righ end with a chamfered 4-chamfered arched stone doorway below a plaque inscribed 'National School 1841'. Rectangular window on left return of porch. Tall, transomed 2-light stone window in the centre of the schoolroom with 4-centred arched lights, hollow- chamfered jambs and a hoodmould. To the left and right 2-light stone windows with 4- centred arched lights and hoodmoulds. Most of the glazing bars survive. The right hand jamb of the right hand window is partly concealed by the porch. To the right of the porch the single storey washroom has a rectangular window with C20 glazing. Paving of pitched stone in front of schoolroom. The right return of the 1841 schoolroom has an arched 2-light transomed timber window with a hoodmould. To the right of the window a 4-centred arched doorway has brick dressings ; small school bell on right gable end. Interior C19 roof trusses survive, tie beam king post and strut design. Both fireplaces blocked, possibly concealing features of interest. A stone plaque, high on the wall of the 1841 schoolroom records the subscribers in 1841 including 3 members of the Carew family. The school cost £245 to build. In 1850 Mary Hellier was the schoolmistress ; Ursula Bevin was the head teacher from 1869-1901. R. Sellman refers to a surviving log book. Sellman, R. R., Devon Village Schools in the Nineteenth Centry (1967) Whites' Devonshire (1850) Whites' Devonshire (1879)

Listing NGR: SS9420407159

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

96638

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Sellman, R R, Devon Village Schools in the Nineteenth Century, (1967)
Whites Directory in Whites Directory, (1850)
Whites Directory in History Gazetteer and Directory of Devonshire, (1879)

End of official list entry

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