Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 12 February 2026 to correct a name in the description and reformat the text to current standards

SK 9824-9924
14/74

CORBY GLEN
BOURNE ROAD (north side)
Willoughby Memorial Library and Art Gallery

(formerly listed as Old School)

6.5.56

I
Incorrectly shown on OS map as School. Former school, now Library and Art Gallery. Founded 1669, constructed 1673, extended 1691, with minor C18 alterations, restored in 1965. Ashlar and squared limestone rubble.

Steeply pitched sprocketed hipped Collyweston slate roof with lead dressings and finials. Central four shafted ashlar ridge stack with moulded base and cornices. Rectangular schoolroom with later master's house to rear right. Single storey with attics and basement, five bay front. Rusticated quoins, chamfered plinth, pulvinated frieze, moulded eaves. On the frieze the inscription "CAROLUS READ GENEROSUS HANC SCHOLAM DIS... GNATAM FUNAVIT ANNO DOMINI 1673"

Projecting two storey pedimented porch dated 1691 and inscribed with Robert Kirke and Hugh Wade, Wardens. First floor band, pulvinated frieze. Central panelled double doors in eared surround and keyblock, with pulvinated frieze supporting a broken triangular pediment containing a shield of arms. To first floor, lighting the parvise, a keyed oculus and in the pediment a circular window. To the right hand side at basement level is a single three-light mullioned window. The porch is flanked by pairs of cross mullioned leaded casements with moulded architraves. The two-light leaded casement dormers have hipped roofs and lead cheeks. The rear has a coved cornice and doorway with plain chamfered surround and cornice, inscribed on the lintel "Incredere ut proficias". To right are two cross mullioned windows and to left a C18 glazing bar sash in plain ashlar surround with raised keyblock. The added rear wing is of coursed square rubble with ashlar quoins, Collyweston slate roof, raised stone coped gable and axial ashlar stack.

The interior retains a half glazed doorway to the original school room with pulvinated frieze and cornice in moulded architrave. The girders are moulded with large shield plaque stops. The cellar has a large fireplace with chamfered arched head and deeply chamfered beams. On the first floor the octagonal ashlar stack has two chamfered and stopped fireplace surrounds. The schoolmaster's accommodation has a spiral staircase and simply chamfered beams. Charles Read of Folkingham left a sum of money for the establishment of free grammar schools at Corby and Tuxford in Nottinghamshire.

Restored in 1965 by the Earl of Ancaster and turned into a Library and Art Gallery as a memorial to his only son, Timothy, who was drowned at sea.

Source: Steel, 1979.

Listing NGR: SK9997524876

External Links

• Willoughby Memorial Gallery official website
• Wikidata Q17531445

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Sheffield and the South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)