Building record 2023/0/17 - The Old School House and Village Hall, Main Street

{1} School and masters house, now village hall and house. Dated 1860-64 for Lady Overstone. Rusticated lias with ashlar dressings and plain-tile roof with fishscale banding. T-shape plan. Masters house of 2 storeys, school is single storey. Elevation to road: Masters house to right has projecting gable of one-window range of wood-mullioned windows with ashlar surrounds. School to left, 3-window range of single-light casements with cast-iron lozenge glazing bars with ashlar surround all under open loggia with triple arcade of octagonal wooden columns. 2 large ashlar gabled dormers above, with triple lancet windows. Gabled porch to right of centre has C19 plank door with moulded stone surround and 4-centred arch head and single-light window to left and slit window above, both with ashlar surrounds. Ashlar gable parapets and kneelers. Lateral stone stacks and bellcote with spirelet at ridge. East gable of school has 4-light window with intersecting tracery and slit window in apex. Masters house has gabled porch to right. Tablet to right under loggia has inscription. "This school house was erected under the care, and at the expense of the good Lady Overstone by whom also the village of Sywell was rebuilt AD 1860-64". Similar tablet to left under loggia has inscription to Thomas Arthur Dickson, former school manager, and is dated 1927. Interior not inspected.

{3} Undated photo, also photo dated 22.01.1993;

<1> Clews Architects, 1980s, Database for Listing of Historic Buildings of Special Architectural Interest: Northamptonshire, 15/301 (checked) (Digital archive). SNN102353.

<2> 1986, List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest ("Greenback"), G05 (unchecked) (Catalogue). SNN100394.

<3> Photographs of buildings in Sywell (Photographs). SNN113268.

Record last edited

Apr 27 2022 11:52AM