Listing Text

SS 72 SW
5/89

MARIANSLEIGH
The Church Room including letterbox in south wall

GV
II

Schoolhouse, now in use as the parish hall. Probably 1840s, built before 1850,
(Whites Devon (1850)), converted to a Sunday School by 1839 (White's Devon (1879).
Colourwashed and rendered, probably cob on stone rubble footings; corrugated asbestos
roof, (formerly thatched), gabled at ends; left end stack with brick shaft. Gothick
style in vernacular materials.
Plan: Extremely small, rectangular on plan with the entrance on the south side. A
lean-to at the left (west) end formerly housed the village pump.
Exterior: Single-storey. The south elevation has one Gothick window to the left
with a 2-centred arch, Gothick glazing bars and some panels of circa mid C19
ecclesiastical stained glass, possibly originating in the parish church which was
severely damaged by fire in 1932. To the right there is a C20 plank door with a
Gothick fanlight with curved glazing bars. A Victorian letter box is in the wall to
the left of the door: this was the subject of a letter to the Times in the 1930s
when the Reverend W.V. Tatham complained that it was too small to accommodate the
village post (Tull).
Interior: Not inspected.
The school was probably converted to a Sunday School in 1876 when a large school was
built at Oxham following the compulsory Education Act.
An unusual survival of a very small schoolroom pre-dating the 1870 Education Act.

Listing NGR: SS7440622085