Cathedral School

Details

BRISTOL

ST5872NW COLLEGE GREEN 901-1/15/63 (South side) 08/01/59 Cathedral School (Formerly Listed as: COLLEGE GREEN (South side) Cathedral Church, Chapter House, Cathedral School, Cloisters & Old Deanery)

GV II*

Part of St Augustine's Abbey, founded 1140, containing the refectory and a C13 right-hand archway, with upper walls early C16, extensively altered and partly refaced late C18/early C19. MATERIALS: C12 red Pennant rubble with limestone dressings, squared coursed rubble above, rendered rear with limestone dressings, rubble ridge stacks and a slate roof. PLAN: single-depth plan, formerly to the S side of the cloister, with a SW vaulted through passage. Norman-style gateway with Perpendicular Gothic style fenestration. The former frater forms the left-hand half of the school building, and had a courtyard to the right; to the rear was a lesser cloister. EXTERIOR: N elevation 3 storeys and basement; 4-window range. The right-hand rubble section has a late C12 two-centre arch of 3 orders with stiff leaf capitals to hollow-moulded arches, an inner arch of cusped trefoil, and a doorway with shouldered lintel and strap hinges; to the right is a weathered corbel relating to the former cloisters, and to the left a blocked entrance with straight joints. Early C16 windows are set in flat-headed hollow-moulded frames, with mullions to ogee heads with cinquefoils, and with small panel tracery upper lights on the second floor. The main section to the left is refaced in early C19 ashlar to the lower 2 floors, symmetrical with drips to the ground and first floors, with C16 second-floor windows, cornice and parapet. Central Tudor-arched doorway with splayed reveals and ridge door; 2 ovolo-moulded 3-light mullion windows each side with octagonal leaded casements, with 3 paired first- and second-floor windows, separated on the first floor by (C18?) buttresses supported on corbels, and a 4-light window over the arch. The rear elevation is in 3 sections. Left-hand rubble 1-window block has a restored basement doorway to the left with moulded arch, 2 small lancets to the right; a drip mould half way up the tall first-floor window, of 4 lights with 2 lower transoms, and a smaller 4-light window above. The middle section is rendered, 3 storeys and 7 windows, with drip moulds to each floor and a roll-top coping. Four 3-light first-floor windows have elliptical-arched heads, the right-hand pair with leaded lights as the front. The upper floor has single windows to the left, the rest paired, with those on the third floor separated by buttresses. The right-hand section is a rubble 2 storey, 1-window range, with a tall elliptical-arched lower cross window with cinquefoil-headed lights, and an upper 3-light window with sunken spandrels. The left-hand return has a jamb from a C16 fireplace at ground-floor level. INTERIOR: extensively remodelled C19. Details include a vaulted passage at the rear to the right, with 2 Tudor-arches, the W arch with moulded surround and an ashlar relieving arch with a heraldic shield. The room above the C12 arch was an open hall, now with a C20 mezzanine. A passage runs along the front of the building, with a C19 open-well stair from the entrance hall with cast-iron stick balusters and column newel. The Headmaster's room has an Adam-style fire surround with fluted mantle, cast-iron hob grate with pointed-arched moulding, and to the left a semicircular-arched niche cupboard. HISTORICAL NOTE: the former frater forms the left-hand half of the school building, and had a courtyard to the right. To the rear was a lesser cloister. (The Buildings of England: Pevsner N: North Somerset and Bristol: London: 1958-: 385; Archaeologica: 1911-).

Listing NGR: ST5834672641

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

379306

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: North Somerset and Bristol, (1958), 385
Archaeologia in Archaeologia , (1911)

End of official list entry

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