Description

William Williamson, 1898. Single storey, 3-bay former infant school with 3-gabled elevation and cupola. Rock-faced squared and snecked rubble with polished long and short quoins. Eaves course. Segmental-headed doorway, stylised battlemented parapet, stone transoms and mullions.

E (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: symmetrical. Steps up to broad, flat-roofed crenellated porch with segmental-headed doorpiece and curved pediment with cartouche inscribed 'ABBOTSHALL INFANT SCHOOL', deep-set 2-leaf panelled timber door with small-pane fanlight; tripartite windows in flanking bays and bipartite windows on returns. Small gable with small tripartite window to centre with square, finialled, 2-stage timber- louvered cupola to ridge behind; larger gables, also with tripartite windows, to flanking bays.

W ELEVATION: small centre gable with timber door and 4-part fanlight to left, and small window to right, small stack to gablehead; flanking larger gables with raised centre transomed tripartite windows.

N ELEVATION: dormer gablet with raised centre tripartite window breaking eaves at centre, 2 bipartite windows in bays to right and door to left with further bipartite window beyond to left. Small, flat- roofed extension abutting to outer left.

S ELEVATION: gablet to centre bay as above, and 2 bipartite windows to right and left of centre, those to right flanking advanced, full- height, shouldered chimney breast breaking eaves and raised above coping.

6-pane glazing pattern over plate glass lower sashes in timber sash and case windows. Grey slates. Coped ashlar skews with swept skewputts; cast-iron downpipes and decorative rainwater hoppers.

INTERIOR: well-detailed, tailored interior. 2-leaf part-glazed hall door with brass fittings to vestibule/cloakrooms with coat hooks and wash basins, toilet cubicles with boarded timber swing doors. Top-lit centre hall with roof beams and collars, boarded dado, architraved doorways and lintel course. Classrooms with boarded dadoes, plain cornicing and segmental-headed, small-paned windows to centre hall and adjoining classrooms.

BOUNDARY WALLS, GATEPIERS, GATES AND DRINKING FOUNTAIN: semi-circular- coped rubble boundary walls and low saddleback-coped boundary walls with railings, ashlar gatepiers with cast-iron gates. S boundary wall with decorative cast-iron drinking fountain with wording 'KEEP THE PAVEMENT DRY', made by 'Macfarlanes Pat Foundry Glasgow'.

Statement of Interest

Although no longer used as an infant school, the building continues to be used by Fife Council for educational purposes.

External Links

• Historic Environment Scotland Listing
• Wikidata Q77771982

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

• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  [(Cumberland and Westmorland)] [By (author) Nikolaus Pevsner] published on (January, 1967)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)