Description

This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 14/04/2020

TQ 55 41
12/530

SPELDHURST
LANGTON ROAD
Speldhurst County Primary School

II
School including boundary walls to the playground 1859 by Kelly (Pevsner) with some later C19 additions. Local sandstone ashlar, rusticated with large ashlar quoins; tile roof; stone stacks with brick shafts. Modest Gothic detail.

Plan: the school faces east. The original schoolhouse is sited to the north: the schoolmaster's house, now part of the school, is to the south. Schoolhouse gable end to the road with a porch block at right angles on the south side and a lateral stack on the south side. Short gabled wing on the north side. L-plan former master's house with a short front left (south east) wing and integral rear outshuts. The two principal rooms are heated from an axial stack and rear lateral stack.

Exterior: single storey former schoolhouse, one window to the gable end facing the road. Porch to the left, set back and gabled to the south with a door in the east wall. Deep eaves, the verges with plain bargeboards. Three-light transomed gable end window with a recessed arched tympanium over filled with masonry laid in a basket weave pattern; chamfered ventilation slit in gable. Chamfered stone doorway to the porch with an original plank door with iron strap hinges with fleur-de-lys finials. Crank-headed window in the southern return of the porch with a ventilation slit over. Two windows to the right (north) return of the main block. The north gable end of the north wing has three square-headed windows and two ventilation slits in the gable. Tall staggered brick shaft with a corbelled brick cornice on the left (south) side. Probably later C19 brick rear additions in a similar style. The former master's house has a one:two bay east elevation, gabled to the front at the left, roof gabled at ends, chamfered plinth. All the windows have chamfered reveals and stone sills and are glazed with C19 casements in timber mullioned frames. Approximately central plank front door with chamfered reveals and an overlight with a pointed arch in the masonry above the lintel. Three-light window to ground floor right with recessed arched tympanum over filled with masonry laid in a basket weave pattern. Two first floor two-light casements to the right. The gable end of the wing, to the left, has deep eaves and one ground and one first floor casement, each with pointed relieving arches with basket weave laid masonry below. Chamfered ventilation slit in the gable. The left (south) return of the house is rendered.

Slightly battered playground walls in random crazy rubble with weathered ashlar coping and rusticated ashlar gate piers. Taller wall of coursed sandstone forms the north boundary of the playground.

Interior: Not inspected.

Forms part of a good C19 group with the Church of St Mary (q.v.).

Listing NGR: TQ5531041309

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26551764

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

• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)