Description

Dated 1876; opened 1877; remodelled and extended 1988. Asymmetrical 2-storey, 3-bay former schoolhouse with single storey, irregularly-planned school adjoined to SW with later additions to front and rear. Squared and snecked tooled sandstone; stugged sandstone dressings. Stugged quoins; stugged long and short surrounds to stop-chamfered openings; chamfered cills; sandstone mullions. Harled later additions.

FORMER SCHOOLHOUSE, SE (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: part glazed timber panelled door centred at ground; gabled window aligned above. Tripartite window at ground in bay to outer right; gabled bipartite window above. Gabled bay advanced to outer left with bipartite windows centred at both floors. NE (SIDE) ELEVATION: single window centred at ground; single window at 1st floor in gabled bay to outer left; bipartite windows at both floors in bay to outer right (gabled upper window). NW (REAR) ELEVATION: stair (?) window at centre; gabled bay advanced to left with single window at 1st floor off-set to right of centre; gabled bay advanced to right with 2 single windows at ground; bipartite window aligned at 1st floor. Lower gabled wing adjoined to outer right with timber door centred at ground; small bipartite window above.

SCHOOL, NW (ENTRANCE) ELEVATION: modern entrance off set to right of centre with projecting gabled wings to left and right (adjoining original wings); flat-roofed addition in bay to outer left. SW (SIDE) ELEVATION: original 3-bay block at centre with bipartite window in bay to outer right; bipartite windows comprising alternate long and short openings in bays at centre and outer left. Modern additions to outer left and right. SE (REAR) ELEVATION: original block with replacement 2-leaf door at ground in bay to outer right; bipartite opening above; tripartite windows in remaining bays to left. Modern addition to front.

Lying-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to former schoolhouse and original school; modern glazing to later additions. Grey slate roofs; raised stone skews; gabletted skewputts. Single, paired and triple square-plan sandstone flues to former schoolhouse with prominent corniced caps, circular cans.

INTERIOR: some original features including hammerbeam brackets (false ceilings); boarded timber dado panelling.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS AND GATE: round-arched coping to sandstone rubble walls dividing playground and former schoolhouse and enclosing site. Pyramidal-capped, square plan piers flanking school entrance; modern gates. Stop chamfered, square-plan sandstone piers flanking pedestrian entrance to schoolhouse; corniced, shallow pyramidal caps; iron gate.

Statement of Interest

Set just outside Swinton Village centre. With its lying-pane glazing, stop-chamfered openings and prominent stacks, the former schoolhouse (now used by the school in part) is particularly interesting and relatively uncompromised by the later additions to the adjoining wing. According to Groome, this "...handsome public school" was erected at a cost of ?2,000 with accommodation for 200 children. Prior to its erection, there were two schools in Swinton - the Church of Scotland school at the E end of the village (now Nos 2 & 4 Coldstream Road), and the Free Church school at the W end. For some time after its opening, this new public school was subdivided - the E wing housing the Church of Scotland children and the remainder housing those from the Free Church. Each section had its own headmaster.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77773104

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)
• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)