SNN108786 - The Old School Room, 15 Bell End, Wollaston, Northamptonshire: Archaeological Building Recording

Planning consent for conversion of the Old School Room for residential use included a condition requiring a programme of archaeological recording prior to the alteration of the building. The programme of works included documentary research and building recording. The latter included a photographic survey in digital and medium format monochrome. The building survey comprised a measured survey and observations. The building is a single cell, single storey building in limestone with a corrugated iron gabled roof with an axial internal stack at the north end of the building. Access is via doors in the east and west sides and the south end. It is lit by two windows in the west side. Internally it has a single fireplace with a cast iron surround at the north end and built in shelves and cupboards to either side of the chimney breast. Two tie-beams are visible beneath a plastered ceiling which obscures the rest of the roof structure. A building which appears to correspond to this one appears on an estate survey dating from 1774 and subsequently on the enclosure map of 1789. The south end of the building appears in an engraved view of the village dating from 1808. Historic maps and documents indicate that the building formed part of a complex of outbuildings and barns owned by the lord of the manor. At the break up of the manorial estate in 1844 the building was purchased by Adam Keep. It formed part of a larger L-shaped plot which included a house now known as Keep House. The building was converted for use as a school room in the later nineteenth century. It was run by Adam Keep’s daughters, Margaret and Alice. No features associated with the original function of the building were identified but it is likely that the building would have been used for storage of agricultural products or animal housing. It occupied the west side of a yard area associated with other agricultural buildings to the north and was located on the eastern edge of the village.