Description

Dated 1873 with later additions and alterations. Single storey, picturesque, gabled L-plan former school with lower, gabled projection to SE; gabled porches to SW and NW; single storey, flat-roofed additions at rear. Squared and snecked tooled cream sandstone to principal range; tooled rubble at rear; ashlar dressings (droved in part). Dry-dashed rear additions. Base course; overhanging timber bracketed eaves with decorative, traceried bargeboards. Stugged, rusticated quoins and long and short surrounds to openings; sandstone mullions; projecting cills. Shouldered-arched openings in square-headed windows to SW.

SW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: gabled porch projecting to right with pointed-arched, boarded timber door at centre; keystoned surround; blank elevation to bay recessed to outer right. 3-bay principal range recessed to left with large bipartite window centred in gable end slightly advanced to right; sandstone panel embossed 'J.M.H & D.M.H 1873' aligned above; bipartite windows in range recessed to left. Porch recessed to outer left.

SE (SIDE) ELEVATION: gabled projection to left with bipartite window to left; single window to right; small window in porch recessed to outer left. 2-bay wing recessed to right with large, bipartite windows in both bays. 4-bay, flat-roofed addition recessed to outer right.

NE (REAR) ELEVATION: projecting gable end to left with single storey, flat-roofed addition to front; blank elevation to lower projection recessed to outer left. Principal range recessed to right with flat-roofed additions to front; porch recessed to outer right.

NW (SIDE) ELEVATION: principal gable end to right with gabled porch projecting at ground; pointed-arched, boarded timber door; keystoned surround; boarded timber addition to left; circular window centred in gablehead. Porch recessed to outer right. Wing recessed to left with various flat-roofed additions to front.

3- and 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows; 6-pane timber windows to rear wing; modern glazing to later additions. Red tile and grey slate fishscale banded roof; decorative brattishing (missing in part). Square-plan bellcote on principal ridge with trefoil-headed openings and tapering spire; bell in place. Sandstone ridge stacks with quatrefoil panels and circular motifs in copes; cans predominantly missing.

INTERIOR: not seen 1999.

Statement of Interest

Closed in 1972 and now a private residence (1999). The Old Schoolhouse is an exceptional and imaginative school design, a unique consequence of the 1872 Education Act. Commissioned and funded by David Milne Home of Paxton and presumably his wife, Jane. The building was designed to replace an earlier, much smaller school to the NW - see separate list entry 'Paxton Thorn Cottage'. Features of particular note include the traceried bargeboards, fishscale roof and original bellcote.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q17835441

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

• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)