The Old School and Schoolmaster's House

Details

SS 72 NE BISHOP'S NYMPTON NEWTOWN

2/56 The Old School and schoolmaster's - house

II

Board school and schoolmaster's house, converted to 2 houses, the school converted in the 1930s (information from owners) 1876 (datestone), with C20 internal alterations, dressed local stone with freestone dressings; slate roofs, gabled at ends; front lateral stack to school, axial stack and end stack to schoolmaster's house. Unusually ambitious Gothic for a board school. Plan: 2 parallel ranges on a west east axis, sited at a crossroads in an isolated position, the school to the south, the schoolmaster's house to the north linked to the school by a small block. Exterior: Surprisingly unaltered, especially the school, which has an attractive, symmetrical 2 window south front, the lateral stack in the centre stepped at the top with a tall, yellow, brick shaft. Separate gabled porches for girls and boys, one ot the left, one to the right, each with string courses, 5 blind lancets in the gable and pairs of stone mullioned windows with arched lights to each return. The doors are original to the building, the left hand porch door 2-leaf, the right hand door originally internal (information from owners) with diagonal boarding. In the centre a stone plaque with good lettering in a stone frame has the date AD 1876 and the words Board School, flanked by transomed 2-light stone mullioned windows with segmental arched lights. The left return of the school is slate hung with a 5-light transomed stone window with stepped lancets and an asymmetrically-placed bellcote. The right return has a similar lancet window and a later single-storey lean-to. The schoolmaster's house retains an original open timberwork porch on the west end and is fenestrated with a mixture of timber sashes and casements, some C20 replacements, probably in original embrasures. Interior: School only inspected. The conversion has retained the fine original roof, king post with curved struts and good carpentry detail. Notable for its well-preserved Gothic Revival detail which contrasts with plainer Board schools of the same date in the region. The location is also unusual: Bishop's Nympton is a large parish and Newton School, known as the Farm School (information from owners), presumably served the more remote farmsteads in the north of the parish where it was difficult for the children to travel to the school in the village.

Listing NGR: SS7659125684

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

97588

Legacy System:

LBS

End of official list entry

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