Description

SITTINGBOURNE
RIDDLES ROAD
TQ 86 SE 8/170

Sittingbourne Adult
Studies College

GII
School and integral headmaster's house,in use as an adult studies establishment.Built in 1878 as Borden Grammar School.Stock brick with limestone dressings.Red clay plain tile roof with moulded ridge tiles and stone coped gable ends with finials.The tall brick shafts of the chimney-stacks have stone cornices with gargoyle-like features at the corners.Plan:Large school and integral headmaster's house in Gothic style.The main central range contains a hall rising through two storeys with dormitories in the attic above which continue over the two storey range to the left (north west) and over the wing to the rear left.There are single storey school rooms projecting to the left at the front in staggered ranges.At the right hand(south east) end a cross-wing contains the headmaster's house at the front and a service range at the back which encloses a small back yard.In circa mid to late C20 a single storey extension was built infilling the space between the two rear wings.Exterior:Asymmetrical south west front of three storeys,one and two storeys and attic and single storeyed bands of stone at window sill and impost levels.Former headmaster's house on the right is a three storey projecting gable-ended wing with grouped lancet windows with cusped heads under hoodmoulds,the second floor window in the gable has plate tracery with trefoil piercing under a pointed arch.On the ground floor a single storey bay with five cusped lancets between a buttress on the right and an integral porch on the left,its trefoil-headed doorway having carved spandrels.Set back to the left of the headmaster's house the main range of four:three:four bays,the gabled centre is advanced slightly and has large three and five-light mullion-transom windows rising through two storeys with cusp-headed lights and depressed two-centred arch hoodmoulds.In the gable a clock within a rose window (maker Gillett and Bland of Croydon 1878).To the left and right of the centre there are Gothic windows,one-light on the ground floor,two-light on the first floor and smaller attic windows above continuing across below the central gable.At left and right ends of main range gabled portals with double chamfered two-centred arches.The central gable is flanked by two tall stacks and gabled wooden ventilators in the roof.Projecting on the left,school rooms in single storey staggered ranges with gable ends facing the front each with a two-centred arch tympanum over the end window.The rear (north east) has projecting gable-ended wings to left and right and at centre large three and five-light windows and gabled ventilators in the roof above with a gabled bellcote above them at the centre.Between the two rear wings the space has been infilled with a C20 single storey extension.Interior:Plain institutional character with some alterations for its various uses since it ceased to be a school but the large central hall has two lateral fireplaces (curiously situated under the large windows)of Gothic design each with a frieze of quatrefoils containing initials WB (William Barrow) and cast-iron grate with a blue and white tile surround.In the dormitories the roof is partly exposed showing the trusses braced with iron tie-rods.History:The school was built in 1878 as Borden Grammar School for boys with money from the 'Barrow Charity'.William Barrow died in 1707 leaving an estate of £12,000 to be distributed among the poor of Bowden,a village near Sittingbourne.In circa 1930 it was occupied by the Kent Farm Institute until the 1960s when it was used for teacher training and in 1979 it became the Sittingbourne Adult Studies College.

Listing NGR: TQ8946463004

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26320348

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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