2845

 

II  

Designated  

20/09/1990  

19/10/2000  

Old School  

 

Monmouthshire  

Grosmont  

Abergavenny  

Grosmont  

340382  

224667  

 

Some 300m N of Grosmont Town Hall, immediately next to road junction to Llanvihangel Crucorney.  

Education  

 

Late-Victorian Board School designed by Hereford architect E H Lingen Barker for the Skenfrith School Board and opened in 1877. The Elementary Education Act 1870 gave locally-elected school boards the power to levy a local rate and build non-denominational schools where there was a need. Lingen Barker designed two other board schools in Monmouthshire at New Inn (1876) and Norton's Cross (1877).  

Late-C19 Gothic. Coursed rubble, ashlar and moulded brick dressings; slate roof with C20 crested ridge tiles. Single storey school and two-storey schoolhouse in single assymetrical range. School (to right) has off-centre projecting gable, verges are corbelled out on curved and pierced brackets to form a decorative canopy. Upper gable inscribed '1877', boarded bellcote above. Below, large 2-light transom window has Gothic hood mould with inset recessed quatrefoil. Transoms retain original C19 glazing with 4+4 pane windows below transom and 2+2 above. Set back from centre gable, on each side, are gabled doorways with corbelled canopies; each has shouldered arch with quatrefoil in recessed tympanum and boarded door with floriated strap hinges. Far left is a 4-pane casement, far right another canopied 2-light transom, with a similar transom in the N gable. Schoolhouse (to left) has centre doorway with flat canopy, and 4-pane horned sashes under flush Gothic hoods on each side, plus attic gablet with detailing as before.  

Schoolroom with smaller classroom to side. Schoolroom (fittings removed) has plain interior. C19 fireplace on long wall, has shouldered architrave with inset ventilators. Roof ceiled at collar. Schoolhouse has stair opposite entry; open string with simple square-section balusters. Fireplaces to upper bedrooms have chamfered architraves with small C19 register grates.  

Included as a well-preserved example of a local Board School and schoolhouse. Group value with the other listed buildings in central Grosmont.