Description

SX 6493-6593 SOUTH TAWTON SOUTH ZEAL

8/302 School and Master's House
including playground and garden walls

GV II

Board school and adjoining schoolmaster's house. Built in 1875 for 126 children;
the architect was Charles Pinn of Exeter. Ironstone/slate rubble with rock-faced
granite and Bathstone dressings. Slate roof with gabled ends and exposed rafter
ends. The central range has an asbestos slate roof.
Plan: long central range containing school rooms with a large school room cross-
wing at the left-hand end and the schoolmaster's house at the right-hand end of 2
short staggered parallel ranges with a porch in the outer right angle and a short
projecting wing at the front.
An unusual design in Romanesque and Italianate styles; a late use of these styles.
Exterior: single storey school and 2 storey masters house, Asymmetrical front
elevation. The single storey central range has 1, 2 and 3-light round-headed
windows with C19 horizontal pivot casements and a round-headed doorway to the right
with a C19 plank door with wrought iron hinges. To the left in the central range 2
C20 doorways flanking a C20 casement with a C20 lean-to canopy over on timber posts.
The principal feature of the building is the large cross-wing projecting at the
left-hand end which has a tripartite window with round-headed lights and an oval
panel above. The window is flanked by rusticated rock-faced granite buttresses, or
piers, with imposts and a large round arch in the gable above which rises to a
bellcot with 4 Norman style colonnettes with cushion capitals supporting a short
pyramidal stone spire with an ornate wrought iron weathervane at the apex. The
projecting verges of the cross-wing gable are supported on brackets and the corners
of the cross-wing have rusticated rock-faced granite quoins. The left-hand side of
the cross-wing has 4, 2-light round-headed windows symmetrically arranged.
At the right-hand end the schoolmaster's house has a short projecting wing at the
front with a C19 tripartite sash on the ground floor and a C19 4-pane sash above;
set back to the right a round-headed stair window. The porch, set back again in the
angle to the right also has a dressed Bathstone round arch. The later addition
above the porch is slate hung. The corners of the master's house also have rock-
faced granite quoins and continuous around the whole building there is a rock-faced
granite plinth.
Including the playground area and garden wall along the front of the whole building;
it is coeval with the school; iron stone/slate rubble with rock-faced granite coping
and rock-faced granite monolithic gate-posts with round heads and wrought iron gates
with cast spear-head finials.
Interior: not inspected but it seems that the open roof of the hall in the cross-
wing has been ceiled. The cast-iron bell-frame and bell in the bellcot is intact.
Source: Kelly's Directory 1902, Devon C19 Church Project.

Listing NGR: SX6511293634

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26399924

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.

Recommended Books

• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6
• 
  Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook 2 Books Bundle Collection (Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair,Old House Eco Handbook: A Practical Guide to Retrofitting for Energy-Efficiency & Sustainability)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments