Old School House, Well, North Yorkshire

Description

WELL

1440/0/10003 CHURCH STREET
16-JAN-09 WELL
(Off)
OLD SCHOOL HOUSE

II
School House, 1722 with later alterations for Neville's Workhouse (local educational charity now known as The Neville Trust).

MATERIALS
Brick with some stonework, mainly covered in later render (render not of special interest). Pantile roof.

PLAN
South facing central entrance, slightly off-set to left (west), with straight stair directly ahead. Room to right (east) has a gable end smoke bay with inglenook with doorway to the south through to a lean-to extension. This extension has an external door and a doorway through to a further lean-to extension to the north. The upper floor either side of the central staircase is subdivided by stud partitions, those in the eastern half being modern, the partition in the western half possibly being older. Attic is divided into two with a brick cross wall.

EXTERIOR
Front, south elevation: Near symmetrical, but with the central entrance slightly off-set to the left. The two upper windows are slightly narrower than the lower windows. All retain 4 pane sashes with exposed sash boxes. South elevation of the eastern lean-to is blind. Entrance covered by an early C20 gabled porch with a 6 panel door. Roof has plain verges. Rebuilt brick end stacks. Pebble dashed finish to the elevation not of special interest.

West gable: Construction is mainly concealed by later render but the gable end appears to be mainly built of rubble and cobble stonework with brick used for the chimney stack. There is also evidence of a stone plinth and dressed stone quoining to the left (rear) corner, possibly remains from an earlier building. There is a blocked window on the ground floor to the left, and a still open attic window of 9 panes divided by metal glazing bars. This window has been slightly reduced in size.

Rear, north elevation: All windows have modern replacement joinery, that to the far left (lighting the bathroom) has been reduced in size. The left end ground floor is covered by a lean-to, semi-sunken extension with a slate roof.

East gable: Mainly covered by a lean-to extension with a slate roof. The exposed attic level is brick built and not rendered and includes a 9 pane attic window.

INTERIOR
Above the original front doorway within the later porch is a partially obscured inscription: "Neville's Work House rebuilt AD 1722" Both ground floor rooms in the original house have an exposed spine beam supporting the floor above. Both rooms also have alcoves built into the wall thicknesses which are probably original, but they have been boarded out with modern sheet material obscuring their original forms. The eastern room has a gable end smoke bay complete with its bressumer beam, also obscured by modern boarding. To the left there is a walk in cupboard and to the right a doorway to the later extensions. Most doors in the house are Victorian or later replacements apart from one 2 panel door upstairs.

The roof structure appears original, including most of the common rafters. Timbers are mainly hewn hardwood with pegged joints. The roof is supported with a central cross wall and two collared trusses supporting purlins.

SUBSIDIARY ITEMS
The property has a low garden wall to the front and a lined well to the rear.

HISTORY
The Old School House was rebuilt in 1722 by Neville's Workhouse, a charity that had been established in 1605 by Thomas, Earl of Exeter and his wife Dorothy. Dorothy was daughter of Sir John Neville and the charity was possibly a refoundation of an earlier charity by the Nevilles of Snape in the C14. The charity was established with property producing an annual income of £30 per year to provide education to 12 local girls. In 1722, when the building was rebuilt, Brownlow, Earl of Exeter and Charles Cecil, Lord of the Manors of Snape and Well, altered the charity and reduced the number of girls educated at any one time to 8. In 1788 the charity was altered again to convert it into 4 schools providing separate education to boys and girls in Well and Snape, each local family having a free place for one boy and one girl between the ages of 6 and 13 with the option to pay for additional places. Property was leased to accommodate the two Snape schools, and it is thought that the Old School House was used as the girl's school in Well attended by around 20 free scholars and a small number of fee paying girls. In 1774 -1818, considerable sums were said to have been spent on improvements to the Old School House as well as other property owned by the charity. The 1856 Ordnance Survey map names Neville's Workhouse and shows additional buildings to the east. These where probably demolished in 1867 when a new school was built, the Old School House becoming the school master's house. In 1906 this school was taken over by the Board of Education as a state primary school with the Old School House leased to the head teacher until the closure of the school in 1960.

SOURCES
Thomas Horsfall, 1912 "Notes on The Manor of Well and Snape in the North Riding of the County of York" pp206-211
Bulmer, 1890 "History and Directory of North Yorkshire"

REASON FOR DESIGNATION
The Old School House is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* It is a largely intact building dating from 1722, and retains such features as an C18 roof structure and inglenook fireplace.
* It has historical interest as an C18 school building built by a local educational charity dating back to 1605.

Reasons for Listing

The Old School House is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

External Links

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Old School House

A Grade II Listed Building in Well, North Yorkshire

Coordinates

Description

Reasons for Listing

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