Former schoolhouse

Summary

A former schoolhouse, associated with the RC church of St Mary and St Edmund, Abingdon, now a parish hall for the church. Designed and built in 1872-1873 by Edwin Dolby.

Reasons for Designation

The former schoolhouse, Oxford Road, Abingdon is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* the building has clear architectural interest and its plan form and internal appearance are apparent;
* it is a good example of the work of the local architect Edwin Dolby.

Historic interest:

* as the product of the patronage of the influential Catholic landowner, Sir George Bowyer;
* as an example of Roman Catholic primary education building in the period following the passing of the Education Act in 1870.

Group value:

* as part of a group of near contemporary Roman Catholic buildings built to a unified design by a single patron and initially planned by his architect. The Church of Our Lady and St Edmund, the Presbytery, the cloister-corridor that joins them and the former schoolroom to the north-east which is now the church hall, all combine to have group value.

History

The erection of the school was part of a phased scheme to build a grouping of Catholic buildings, all financed by the local landowner Sir George Bowyer, QC and Bart. who lived at Radley House (now Radley College). He was an expert on jurisprudence and constitutional matters and a significant figure in ecclesiastical politics in the mid C19. He had converted to Catholicism in 1850 and inherited his baronetcy in 1860. He was an influential supporter of Cardinal Wiseman but fell out with Cardinal Manning. Bowyer’s patronage at Abingdon extended to several phases of building. The eastern part of the church and the presbytery were finished in 1857 to the designs of William Wardell and the western nave was designed by George Goldie and completed in 1865.

The school opened in 1873 and was the last of Bowyer's acts of patronage. It was staffed by Sisters from the Convent of Mercy which stands close by to the north west. The school moved to a new site in Radley Road in 1961.

Edwin Dolby was a local architect with an office in Abingdon. He designed buildings in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and also in Wales and Devon. By 1873 he had already built additions at Abingdon School including School House and Big School.

Details

A former schoolhouse, associated with the Roman Catholic church of St Mary and St Edmund, Abingdon, now a parish hall for the church. Designed and built in 1872-1873 by Edwin Dolby.

MATERIALS and PLAN: coursed rubble walling with ashlar dressings and a plain tile roof. The porch has timber-framed walling and the bellcote has a timber frame with shingle tiles to its lower body and roof. The three schoolrooms are placed in an L shape with two facing west and one in the north wing. A later, C20 addition projects to the east.

EXTERIOR: the gabled north face has two, two-light windows placed at either side of a stepped buttress. Each window has plate tracery with a mullion and transom and quatrefoil to the apex. Above are two small rectangular windows in the gable with ashlar surrounds, set between two flush bands of ashlar that stretch across the gable. Above and behind, on the ridge crest, is the octagonal bellcote which has wood shingles to its lower body and a shingled spire roof with lead cap. Recessed at right is the north face of the porch which has stone walling to its lower body and panels of timber framing above with rectangular windows.

The west front has the porch entrance at left, set beneath a catslide roof and with timber framed upper walling and a plank door with decorative metal hinges and a cambered head. To the right of this and set beneath two gables are a two-light and a three-light window, each with plate tracery, ashlar surrounds and a quatrefoil and sexfoil, respectively, to their apex.

The south face has three, evenly-spaced, two-light openings. The left hand two are two-light windows and the right-hand opening is a doorway with a half-glazed timber door. The head of each opening has an ashlar lintel with arched panels. The tiled roof sweeps low to just above the window heads.

The east face has a gable at left with a single lancet. To the right are three doorways, the right pair appearing to have been windows originally. At left of centre is the C20 addition which is attached by a corridor with glazed sides and pitched, glazed roof. The body of the addition, housing lavatories, is of stretcher-bond red brick with a shallow-pitched, flat roof.

INTERIOR: the big schoolroom is of three bays defined by wooden trusses supported by painted wall brackets. Wall posts and arched braces support the cambered tie beams, above which are queen posts and collars with cut-through trefoil ornament to their supporting, arched braces. A smaller school room has wall brackets and the lower parts of similar wall posts and braces but a suspended ceiling has been inserted above. The third schoolroom in the north wing has exposed purlins but no other structural ornament.

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Bradley, S, Tyack, G, The Buildings of England: Berkshire (2010), 100

Websites
Architectural History Practice Taking Stock report for Portsmouth Diocese, accessed 25/10/2022 from https://taking-stock.org.uk/building/abingdon-our-lady-and-st-edmund/

End of official list entry