Description

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

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26400787

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

• 
  Hertfordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of Historic Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990