Summary
Village school, built in 1842 and opened in 1843, extended to the rear in 1896 and 1931 to provide cloakrooms, and in 1944 to provide a kitchen. The rear wall surrounding the playground and the girls’ WC block are excluded from the listing.
Reasons for Designation
The Old day School in Bluntisham, built in 1842, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* it is a well-preserved and early example of a small rural school;
* it is a simple, well-proportioned building in a pared down Tudor style, constructed of local gault brick with minimal but effective stone detailing;
* its earliest plan form remains legible, and numerous historic features, such as the clock, panelled doors, and the tablet displaying the coat of arms of the founder, enhance its architectural and historic authenticity.
Historic interest:
* its later additions demonstrate the evolution of educational provision through the second half of the C19 and first half of the C20;
* it played a significant part in shaping the lives of many hundreds of local children, and the survival of school plans and records further contributes to an understanding of its central role in the community.
Group value:
* it has strong group value with numerous surrounding listed buildings, particularly with the Grade II* listed Stapenhill, a mid-C18 farmhouse, to the immediate north, as the school was built on land gifted from the then owner.
History
Until the Elementary Education Act of 1880 which made attendance compulsory (for children aged between five and ten), schooling was not universally available and the presence of schools in communities was patchy. In Bluntisham, the Church of St Mary may have served as a school classroom from the early 1700s; and 14 acres of land were given by the Reverend Samuel Saywell (1652-1708), ‘forever to be managed to the best advantage for teaching the poor children of the parish’. In 1842 the Reverend Richard Tillard established the school which he specified should educate the pupils ‘in the principles and according to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Established Church of England’. David Godfrey, a local landowner, gave the land from the grounds of his home, Stapenhill, (listed at Grade II*); and it is presumed the Reverend Tillard provided the finance and organised the design and construction of the school.
Opening in 1843, the school consisted of a large classroom, for junior and senior pupils, facing east onto the High Street, a small classroom for infants in a rear wing to the north, and an entrance lobby on the rear south-west corner. One or both of the classrooms had tiered seating in galleries. Heating was provided by an open fire in the infants’ room and by two cast iron stoves in the larger room. The school room was also used for parish meetings, plays, concerts etc. The first edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map from 1888 shows the school with a small playground on the west side and two small blocks, presumably WCs, to the north and south. In 1896 the entrance porch was removed to allow the main range to be extended along the rear to provide cloakrooms with separate external doors for boys and girls. The second edition OS map of 1902 shows that the playground was also subdivided at this date.
In 1904 the galleries were replaced by benches, and it was proposed that the large classroom be split into two with a dividing pair of curtains suspended from a rail. Whether at that time, or at a later date, the division was made more permanent with half-glazed timber doors suspended from a track. The doors could be folded back concertina-style which provided the flexibility to have one large room or two.
The rector of Bluntisham cum Earith from 1897-1917 was the Rev Henry Sayers, who, along with his wife Helen, often visited the school to meet with the staff, teach lessons and inspect the children's work. As rector he would have overseen the management of the school and ensured it was being run on church principles. His daughter was the famous poet, novelist, playwright and theologian Dorothy L Sayers who lived in Bluntisham between the ages of four and twenty-four, and knew the village and its inhabitants well.
In 1930 the Godfrey family provided additional land from their garden to enlarge the playground. This allowed for the cloakrooms to be further extended, and two new WC blocks were built at the north and south ends of the playground. The boys’ block has since been demolished. The headmaster recorded in his school logbook that prior to the cloakroom extension, the chimney at the back of the school had been pulled down and rebuilt.
In the 1940s, new legislation compelled local authorities to provide free nutritious meals for all schoolchildren, and in 1944 a kitchen was duly built adjoining the cloakrooms at the rear of the school. Following the war there was a national survey of schools which included plans of their facilities. Bluntisham’s plan, dated 1946, confirmed the school consisted of two classrooms, two cloakrooms, the school meals kitchen and, outside in the playground, the separate WC blocks (three earth closets and an open urinal area for the boys, and four earth closets with a coal shed attached to it, for the girls). A fence separated the girls’ playground from the boys’ playground area. In 1967 the school closed and was then occupied by a local playgroup for twenty years, after which it was used by other local groups. It is currently vacant (2023).
Details
Village school, built in 1842 and opened in 1843, extended to the rear in 1896 and 1931 to provide cloakrooms, and in 1944 to provide a kitchen.
MATERIALS: gault brick laid in English bond with stone dressings and a slate roof-covering.
PLAN: the school faces east onto the High Street and has a playground to the rear (west). It consists of a principal rectangular range containing a large classroom and a rear north wing containing a smaller classroom. The cloakrooms are positioned across the rear elevation in an addition of 1896 which was further extended in 1931. Projecting at right angles from this is a small wing, added in 1944 to provide a kitchen.
EXTERIOR: the school has one storey of double height under a steeply pitched roof with capped angle ridge tiles and exposed rafter feet at the eaves. The gable ends have low parapets with kneelers supported by scrolled cavetto mouldings. A wide chimney stack (rebuilt around 1930), pierced by a Gothic arch opening and surmounted by two clay chimney pots, rises through the lower end of the rear slope. The fenestration consists of recessed timber windows of various lights, set in stone surrounds with splayed sills. The symmetrical, three-bay façade has a central projecting gabled bay (with the same treatment as the gable ends) which is lit by a large vertical six-light timber window with top-opening lights, flanked by two-light margin lights. In the gable head is a blank stone tablet, set within a recessed square panel. The bays on either side are lit by square four-light windows. The gable ends are lit by large, vertical, fifteen-light, top-opening windows with wooden mullions. Above these, the gable heads are pierced by narrow gothic arch louvred openings set in chamfered brick surrounds. On the south gable end there is a clear join in the brickwork where the 1896 extension was added as an outshot.
On the rear (west) elevation, the north wing is lower in height than the main range. It has a similar roof treatment but without the stone kneelers. The gable end is dominated by a large twelve-light window with top-opening panes, under a wooden lintel. The right return is lit by two six-light windows in chamfered brick surrounds. To the right of this, and at the far right of the 1896 extension, are plank and batten doors giving access to the cloakrooms. In between is a small flat roofed extension (added in 1931) in similar brick with a simple wooden eaves cornice. This is lit on both ends by horizontal three-light windows, each of four panes, divided by wooden mullions. The middle ones are casements. Projecting from this is a small kitchen extension, added in 1943, also of similar brick, with a pitched roof, and lit by metal casements.
INTERIOR: the original plan form of the school is little altered, and some historic fittings remain, notably the four-panel doors with latches and lock cases to the main schoolroom, and some of the simple, scrolled window ironmongery. The interior walls are mostly of exposed brick, painted off-white.
The main schoolroom is a large space with a high, canted ceiling divided by chamfered timber ribs. Towards the south end is a folding wooden partition with a fixed row of glazed panels above. Only two of the folding doors remain, and these have two lower panels and four glazed panels above. The opening for the stove is blocked but above it is a small square frame with a cusped quatrefoil containing the coat of arms of the founder, Reverend Tillard, and those of his wife’s family, the Smelts. Part of the carpet has been taken up, revealing the wooden floorboards. On the south wall, a tall, narrow built-in cupboard contains part of the clock mechanism, the rest of which is in situ in the roof space.
The infants’ room in the rear wing contains a chimney breast with a blocked fireplace opening. No historic fixtures remain in the cloakrooms in which more recent WCs have been installed.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: along the front (east) of the school, the C19 intersecting iron rails with loop tops rest on a gault brick plinth, and have iron gates at both ends with faceted finials on the posts.
