25097

 

II  

Designated  

30/04/2001  

30/04/2001  

The School House  

 

Flintshire  

Llanasa  

Holywell  

Kelston  

310688  

382515  

 

Approximately 1.1km N of Llanasa village on the S side of a minor road between Llanasa and Gronant.  

Education  

 

Built as a Roman Catholic school in 1857 (date on building) by J. Spencer, architect of Liverpool, at the expense of Sir Pyers Mostyn of Talacre. It was symmetrically designed with detached wings housing separate schoolrooms for boys and girls, each incorporating lodgings for the teachers and nuns. The former boys' school is now The School House. The former girls's school is now St Winefrides School House, while the nuns' lodging is now St Winefrides. The playwright Emlyn Williams (1905-87) was a pupil at the school.  

 

Not inspected.  

Listed for architectural interest as a fine mid C19 Gothic school and of additional interest as an early Roman Catholic school with segregated schoolrooms.  

The School House, St Winefrides and St Winefrides School House Puginian-Gothic style school comprising separate boys' and girls' school rooms linked by a short wall with arched statue niche, and corresponding lodgings for masters and nuns at right angles, forming a symmetrical U-shaped plan. The school faces NE with the former boys' school to the L (now The School House) and girls' school to the R (now St Winefrides and St Winefrides School House). Of coursed rock-faced stone and freestone dressings, steep slate roofs with crested ridge tiles, behind coped gables. These have moulded kneelers above which are gablets with blind trefoils. Lateral stacks turn ashlar and are heightened in yellow brick. Windows retain original mullions but the glazing is replaced. The School House gable end faces the road. The entrance is recessed on the R-hand side beneath a shallow segmental arch, and has a boarded door. On the L side is a 3-light window. In the upper storey is a 2-light window, then a tablet with the date in raised letters, and a blind trefoil in the gable. The R side wall has 3 narrow 2-light windows lighting the recessed entrance, then a similar window on the R side, while above is a 2-light window under a gablet. Further R the elevation is set back and has a tall stack. It has a 3-light window in the lower storey and 2-light window above. To their R is a blocked doorway and then another doorway with renewed door. The L side wall has a moulded eaves cornice with billet frieze, 2 superimposed triangular roof dormers, and has irregular fenestration. From the R end, its has a small single light (with triangular head in the upper storey), an external stack with a blind window at lower-storey level, a single then 2-light window, and 2 single-light windows in the lower storey, above which is a 2-light window under a gablet. The former school has its gable end projecting in front of the house. It has 3 stepped cusped lancets, an inserted doorway lower R under a lintel, with a small inserted window above it. The original entrance, in a low porch on the L (S) side of the gable end, is now obscured by a later projecting garage. The N side wall of the school, facing the road, is of 4 buttressed bays and forms a reflected pair with the girls' school (St Winefrides School House). On the inner sides each school room has a 2-light and a single light window, while in the next bay is a 3-light stepped window under a steep gablet, and then 2-light and 3-light windows. The rear gable end has an attached coped wall between the 2 former schools, which has an arched statue niche in a gabled projection. The former nuns' lodging (St Winefrides) forms a reflected pair with the former masters' lodging, with similar detail (but without a dated tablet in the gable end). However, its L side wall has only a single doorway lower L. The girls' school (St Winefrides School House) has a gable end with 3 stepped, cusped lancets, a trefoil in the gable, and a stone stack on the L side behind the verge. Further R and reached through an arched doorway in the garden wall which has 'girls' in raised letters over the arch, is a low gabled porch. It has a boarded door under a segmental head on the L side, a single-light window then a blocked window with shouldered lintel further R. The S side wall of the school, facing a garden at the rear of the block, is 5-bay with triangular-headed lights to the windows, 3 small triangular roof dormers and 2 inserted skylights. The central bay has a 2-light window with inserted doorway and door below it, and is flanked by 3-light windows, and 2-light windows in the outer bays. An external stack is L of centre. A fixed iron-frame window has been inserted between the outer bays on the R side. A tall eaves stack is at the R end. On the L side the porch has openings similar to the opposite wall and includes a half-glazed door.