History

First built in 1876 by Henry Harris in Tudor-Gothic style; greatly enlarged by J Coates Carter, the well-known architect of Penarth, in early C20 with some Classical detail.

Exterior

The front blocks are arranged as a U-shaped group with Boys and Girls Halls and classrooms separated by the central School House, set back behind front garden. Rubble construction, snecked to earlier work and coursed to enlargements; freestone dressings to windows and quoins. Tiled roofs, overhanging eaves and brick chimney stacks; square-pane glazing. The hall ranges, Boys uphill and Girls downhill have gables to the road and transverse wings with downhill gable ends; doorways to front in middle. Boys have 3-light square headed window with pilasters; Girls have Venetian type window with central keystone; rounded cills. Both gables have blue and white painted decoration, (by R Norton Nance of St Ives, designed by his wife), including fleur de lys, dragons and birds, on roughcast; some of the Girls' decoration is set in a reticulated pattern border. Below eaves to left of entrances are unusual inset painted panels depicting boys at work and girls doing exercises with dumb-bells. Similar downhill gable ends have simple painted decoration and 3-light windows; Girls have a further transverse wing stepped forward with twin gable end. Small clerestories to both roofs on both sides.
2-storey house with tall gable to advanced right hand bay; pointed arched lights with high transom to 1st floor below blind shield and relieving arch; paired cross-frame windows to ground floor with trefoil headed lights, small-pane to top. Hipped dormer roof over left hand 1st floor cross-frame window; lean-to below containing 3-light window and porch with segmental arched entry; shouldered doorway within.
At the rear there are single-storey school ranges relating to the earlier work and with similar trefoil headed lights; these are set within tall gables and with transom at eaves level.
Arched braced roof trusses to the later work.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29491425

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

• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)