Description

WEEK ST MARY WEEK ST MARY
SX 29 NW
6/86 The Old College,
outbuilding adjoining left
29.9.61 gable end of College, wall
adjoining right front of
College

GV II*

House, formerly grammar school, outbuilding and wall. Built 1508 for Dame
Thomasine Percival who endowed the school. C20 alterations and repairs.
Coursed polyphant with granite dressings and slate roof. Present building
survival of larger complex (qv New College and Hayescroft). Single depth plan
with left gable end polyphant chimney probably rebuilt and massive rear granite
lateral stack with off-set weatherings and moulded granite cap. Perhaps with
worn merlons. This stack is gabled back to the roof. Granite coping and quoins
to right gable end. Rear left stair turret. 2-storey, 4-window range with
slatestone rubble moulded plinth. Off-centre, moulded, granite 4-centre arched
doorway with shield in tympanum and floral motifs in spandrels. Ground floor
windows renewed and or repaired, 3-light casements 6 panes per light with
glazing bars and new timber lintels. 2 rear 3-light ground floor windows with
pointed heads and hollow-chamfered granite mullions below square-headed hood
moulds with label stops, diamond leads. Ground floor room right is hall with
slate floor and moulded granite fireplace, lintel probably renewed. Kitchen to
left of entrance has renewed polyphant fireplace. Moulded granite arch into
stair turret. Stairs altered, moulded granite arch with ogival apex from stairs
into first floor raised about 45 cm. Principals visible in upstairs room. Roof
timbers partly renewed, remaining older timbers circa C18. Single-storey
outbuilding adjoining left gable end of college has 2 blocked rear windows with
moulded granite jambs; 1 has hood mould and label stops. Battlemented coursed
polyphant wall adjoining right front of range and running along street front has
granite moulded coping to merlons and embrasures. Narrow opening to partially-
blocked turret in thickness of wall, on college side, possibly for ringing bell.
Thomasine Bonaventure was born in Week St Mary and eventually married Sir John
Percival, Mayor of London, 1498-9. The foundation of Week St Mary Grammar
School was similar to the foundation of Macclesfield Grammar School, founded by
Sir John Percival in 1503. The grammar school at Week St Mary was the third of
its kind to be founded by a woman. The deed of endowment has survived (qv
Marhayes). Cornwall County Record Office, AD.405. Alterations and repairs by
Paul Pearn in 1975 for the Landmark Trust. An etching by Miss Hawksworth from a
drawing by S Porut of the entrance appears in Relics of Antiquity or Remains of
Ancient Structures, with Other Vestiges of Early Times in Great Britain, London
(1811). P L Hull, The Endowment and Foundation of a Grammar School at Week St
Mary by Dame Thomasine Percival, reprinted from The Journal of the Royal
institution of Cornwall, New Series, Vol.VII, Part 1, 1973.

Listing NGR: SX2381097673

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17556100

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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