Alnmouth Board School

Summary

Board School and master's house, built in 1876 to the designs of F R Wilson.

Reasons for Designation

The former Alnmouth School and master's house, of 1876, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* designed by the well-regarded regional architect F R Wilson, it is a handsome and well-balanced composition of school and attached house;
* it is a well-detailed example of a Board school building that has seen few losses, and is well-designed for its sloping site;
* the school retains its original plan form and character, and retains significant internal features, including three original stone fireplaces;
* the building makes a particularly strong contribution to the street scene, utilising good-quality local materials, and it compares favourably to listed examples of similar buildings elsewhere in England.

Historic interest

* as an early Board school that exemplifies the principles of such buildings nationally and reflects the Victorian concerns of education for all.

History

Alnmouth School was built in 1876 shortly after the 1870 Education Act provided for the education of all children in England. Prior to this a school had been housed in the chapel. A school board was formed for the District of Alnmouth so that a mixed school for 78 children could be provided. Land was bought at a cost of £210; around one-third of the pupils had their fees paid by a John Appleby, a local corn merchant. The building opened with 24 boys and 16 girls, and the school population rose to around 70 over the following 10 years. At its opening, the school comprised a mixed school room on the eastern side; there was a boys’ entrance and cap lobby, a yard, and offices on the north side. The girls’ entrance porch and yard and a second classroom stood to the west side. Adjoining the latter was a master's house set within a large garden. It comprised a parlour, kitchen, scullery, coalhouse, and three first floor bedrooms.

The architect was Fredrick Richard (F R) Wilson of Alnwick, who had already designed several schools in the district. F R Wilson was born in London in 1827. He worked for Charles Barry on the Houses of Parliament before writing sanitary reports on various towns. In 1854 he went to Alnwick, Northumberland as site architect for Anthony Salvin who was restoring Alnwick Castle, and in 1859 he set up his own business at Alnwick. He won the RIBA Silver Medal for drawings of Brinkburn Priory in 1861 and was admitted FRIBA in 1873. He died on 6 May 1894. Wilson was a well-regarded regional architect, with numerous listed buildings to his name. He was praised at the time of opening for the school design including its use of materials: warm coloured stone from the Spy Law Quarry and pinkish sandstone ‘taken from the seashore’.

The Alnwick Mercury describes the school opening in 1876, at which amongst other dignitaries, parents and children, the architect F R Wilson attended and was praised for his 'picturesque and practical design' After motivational speeches, the ceremony ended with the children running races for oranges as prizes.

The school buildings are depicted on the 1:2,500 Ordnance Survey Map of 1897 annotated ‘School’. The school closed in 1971, when it became a private prep school which itself closed in the late 1990s. It became an arts centre and then a shop and cafe in 2014. The master’s house underwent internal alteration and refurbishment in 2024.

Details

Board School and master’s house, 1876 to designs of F R Wilson

MATERIALS: warm coloured sandstone from nearby Spy Law Quarry and pinkish/purple sandstone in alternating courses with ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roof coverings.

PLAN: the school and master's house form an overall H-plan. There are two parallel school rooms, separated by a cross passage, with girls' entrance to the south and boys' entrance to the north. The smaller school room is divided at the south end to create an office/cloaks space. Attached to the west of the school is the rectangular master’s house. A steep descent from the road to the west of the site was built into the design by placing the master's house at the lower west end so that its first floor is level with the school building.

EXTERIOR: the buildings have pitched roofs, stone verges, roll finials, stone quoins, a high chamfered plinth, and chamfered window and door openings with alternating quoins.

The three-bay south elevation comprises a gabled bay to the east with an ornate gabled bell turret rising above its apex, containing the original bell. An inset stone tablet to the apex reads: ‘ALNMOUTH/ BOARD SCHOOL/ERECTED AD 1876’. Below there are two long, paired lancet windows with shoulder-arched heads, each forming a stone cross window, the central mullion having a decorated head. Attached to the south-west corner is a gabled porch with an inset stone tablet to its apex reading ‘ENTRANCE FOR GIRLS.’ The porch has a shoulder-arched entrance. Reflecting the differing levels of the site, the girls’ entrance is reached by a steep set of stone stairs flanked by stone balustrades. The single-storey central range has a right end chimney stack and a central pedimented multi-foil roundel, possibly a former clock, in the form of a roof dormer. Below there are paired trefoil-headed two-light windows. The full-height westernmost bay (master’s house) is gabled with a finial and a narrow ventilation window to the apex. Below there are paired first-floor shoulder-arched windows, and similar windows and an entrance are retained within the original south elevation, which is now obscured by a full-width flat-roofed, single-storey extension with modern windows* (the extension is excluded from the listing).

The east elevation comprises alternate bands of red and pink sandstone and a large, shaped chimney stack to both the centre and the north end. Four square-headed windows pierce the elevation fitted with original four-over-four sliding sash windows. The west elevation is pierced by three first-floor windows and three ground floor openings, the latter including an original entrance; all openings are a mixture of shoulder-arched and square-headed forms.

The rear elevation is plainer and comprises three gables of differing sizes, the most easterly with a pair of first floor square-headed windows and a full-width, flat-roofed single-story extension. The central gable has a single large central window, and the west gable (master’s house) has a single first-floor window and a two-phase ground-floor hipped roof extension. The boys’ entrance is reached by stone steps inserted between two of the gabled bays.

INTERIOR: the main school room is a single undivided space open to the original three-bay triangular timber truss roof structure. It retains its original simple plan, a pair of substantial stone shoulder-arched canopied chimney piece, a floor boarded floor and timber panelling to dado level. This space was possible originally divided by a screen into two parts. The cross-passage has similar panelling and flooring and a round-arch. The smaller second school room has a coved plaster ceiling and a similar chimney piece. The former cloaks/office space at the south side is divided from the schoolroom by a partition containing a large multi-paned window, and it also has a boarded floor and panelling. Doors within the school are mostly boarded. The ground floor of the master’s house has been opened out to create a large open space, although the original floor plan is legible in the remains of a sub-dividing stair-passage wall. An original open-string staircase with stick balusters and a moulded newel post is retained and each of the three first floor bedrooms retain their original plan and original spatial characteristics. There are four-panel doors throughout the first floor and a pair of chimney breasts.

Sources

Books and journals
Harwood, E, England’s Schools: History, Architecture and Adaptation (2010),

End of official list entry

Print the official list entry