Description

CREDITON

SS826000 ST LAWRENCE GREEN
672-1/5/151 (North side)
Queen Elizabeth Higher School, south
range

GV II

School. 1859 to the designs of John Hayward, school opened
1860. Flemish bond brick; Bathstone and Ham Hill dressings;
slate roof; stacks with brick shafts and Bathstone quoins.
Tudor style.
Plan: Overall E-plan. Central block contains the hall with
entrances to left and right; identical double depth masters'
houses at either end, each with a central entrance and rear
wing.
Exterior: Hall block single storey; masters' houses 2 storeys
and attic. Symmetrical 3:5:3 bay front. The 5-bay hall block
in the centre has a gable-ended roof (central lantern
missing); plinth; coped buttresses with set offs. Coped
parapet, gabled over the centre of each bay with a stone
shield in each gable. Moulded string below parapet with Tudor
style carvings; projecting griffins carved at each corner. 5
Ham Hill 3-light windows with hollow-chamfered mullions and
high transoms, glazed with iron casements with glazing bars.
Moulded string at sill level is carried out round buttresses.
To left and right of the hall there are gateways with
chamfered Tudor arches and coped parapets rising as a gable in
the centre with a carved shield. The rear elevation has a
secondary corridor block.
The masters' houses each have stone quoins and 2 coped gables
to the front with kneelers; moulded stone string at first
floor sill level. Shouldered stacks on the inner returns have
quoins and coped caps, stack to left end house rebuilt. Steps
up to central 2-centred arched doorway with a hoodmould in the
centre; original plank doors with ornamental strap hinges.
Original inner doorways with half-glazed doors with a splate
finial tot he frame. 4-light mullion and transom stone windows
with hoodmoulds to left and right. The first floor has outer
3-light stone mullioned windows with hoodmoulds, 2-light
window in the centre, 2 similar 2-light attic windows. The
outer returns continue in the same style. The right return is
very complete with 5 ground floor windows and 5 first floor
windows. Gabled dormer to the left; rear wing gabled to the
front to the right. The left return has some C20 timber
windows: 5 ground and 5 first floor windows.
Interior: The hall is very complete with a 5-bay open roof
with tie-beam trusses with chamfered arch braces carried on
moulded corbels; 2 tiers of purlins; windbraces. 3-light
windows to each end. A framed print in the hall shows the
inauguration of the school in 1860.
John Hayward of Exeter was the leading local Gothic Revival
architect from the 1840s. He worked principally on church
restoration and carried out an extensive restoration and
repair programme on Crediton parish church in the 1870s. There
are only a handful of secular buildings by him in the county.
The school is typical of his work in the 1860s, scholarly and
restrained.

Listing NGR: SS8266600474

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26504640

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

• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  [(Shropshire)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1958)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)