Former Foxton Board School and School Yard Perimeter Walls, Foxton, Leicestershire

Description

1287/0/10009
30-NOV-09

FOXTON
WOODGATE
Former Foxton Board School and school yard perimeter walls

Board school, 1875 by RJ and J Goodacre of Leicester.

MATERIALS: Red brick laid in English bond with blue brick banding under slate roofs.

PLAN: It has a simple plan consisting of a rectangular north-south block containing the main teaching room, with a smaller infants' classroom extending at right angles from the east side, with a corridor on the north side of that.

EXTERIOR: The single-storey school building has to the west side a three-bay elevation defined by flat buttresses, each with one stone set-off, over a plinth with a blue-brick top splay. A blue-brick band runs round 3 sides of the building at window sill level. The west fenestration is of two timber single-light top-hung casements to each bay with artificial stone sills and lintels, and over the lintels are three separate runs of moulded brick as a cornice. There are stone kneelers to the gabled roof, which carries a central ventilator to the ridge. The south return is lit through a three-light timber cross casement with an artificial stone lintel. Above that is an oculus with blue brick surround and glazing bars in the form of a Star of David, and in the apex of the gable is a slit ventilating light over an artificial stone band. The north return is similar but more elaborate, in that there are three top-hung single-light casements with a continuous artificial stone sill and lintel, and the Star of David oculus is set within a recessed curved triangle with blue-brick edging. Over this the slit ventilating light and stone band mirrors those of the south return. The roof slope develops as a catslide dropping over the main arched entrance doorway, which has a plank door with elaborate cross bracing to the inside.

The infants' room to the east side is also single-storeyed but lower than the main room, with a single-light top-hung casement to the south elevation and two similar windows to the east, all under pointed arches. The east side also has a doorway under a pointed arch containing a similar door to the north side, and to the north return is a single-light casement under a square head. In the angle with the main block is the rectangular plinth of a chimneystack.

INTERIOR: The north doorway leads to a corridor paved with red and black floor tiles which links the two interior rooms and connects with the east doorway, and has a complete set of original coat hooks. The roof is half of a scissor-braced structure and there are two internal cross-braced timber plank doors opening into the infants' and the senior rooms under depressed pointed arches. The main room has two hammerbeam roof trusses, which rise from timber corbels and are distinguished by pierced arched braces to the collars, and there are further arched braces to the short hammerposts. The ceiling is boarded in a scissor-braced form. There are pine floorboards and two depressed-arched doorways at the north end of the east wall, one opening into the corridor and the other into the infants' room, with elaborate cross-braced doors. A similar third door at the south end of the wall opens to the exterior.

The infants' room has a scissor-braced roof of common rafters with boarding. The fireplace has been removed from the south-west corner, although the mantelshelf and hearth remain.

SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: To the east of the school is a slated single-storey toilet block which appears on the 1886 OS map and is part of the original construction. The east boundary wall attached to the toilet block and the north wall are likewise part of the original construction, and are both in English-bond brick. The west boundary wall was constructed in the 1970s and is not of special interest.

HISTORY: Foxton is a nucleated village mentioned in the Domesday Book. It is on the Leicester branch of the Grand Union Canal and is notable for having two staircase flights of five locks each, built in 1812 and listed at Grade II*, and an inclined-plane boat lift dating from 1900. In 1801 there were 420 inhabitants, and in 1891 there were 284. There was an unendowed school run by Robert Fellowes from 1590 to 1614; by 1833 there were two private day schools attended by 10 boys and 16 girls, and a Sunday school maintained by subscription. Following the passing of the 1870 Education Act, a school board was set up in Foxton in June 1874. A site was bought for £40 on the banks of the canal. The firm of RJ & J Goodacre of Leicester were appointed as architects and the school was built for £650 in 1875 by James Jennings, a local contractor. In 1967 a new larger school was built to the south, and the old school building became the Foxton Field Centre. This closed in 2007 and at the time of listing (2009) the building was redundant.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION:
The former Foxton Board School is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is an intact example of a small village board school. Built in a single phase in 1875, it has remained entirely unextended and unaltered.
* It has good detailing, particularly in the interior, with a hammerbeam roof in the main hall.
* It is of relatively early date for board schools outside London.
* It is by known architects, RJ Goodacre and J Goodacre, with other listed buildings to their name.

SOURCES:
Elizabeth Williamson and Nikolaus Pevsner, Buildings of England. Leicestershire and Rutland (2nd edn 1984), 154.
J.M. Lee & R.A. McKinley (eds), Victoria County History of Leicestershire, Vol. V (1964), 90-96.
J. Nichols, History and Antiquities of Leicestershire, Vol. 2, Part 2 (1798).
Post Office Directory of Leicestershire and Rutland (1898), 551.
F.S. Edmonds, History of Foxton (1911), 20.

Reasons for Listing

The former Foxton Board School is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is an intact example of a small village board school. Built in a single phase in 1875, it has remained entirely unextended and unaltered.
* It has good detailing, particularly in the interior, with a hammerbeam roof in the main hall.
* It is of relatively early date for board schools outside London.
* It is by known architects, RJ Goodacre and J Goodacre, with other listed buildings to their name.

External Links

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