History

Former National Girls' School, also taking infants of both sexes, built 1843-4 by A W N Pugin who was employed at the castle at the time, at the expence of the dowager Charlotte Myddleton (Mrs Myddleton-Biddulph] at the cost of £450, and extended to the N in sympathetic style in 1874. It was further altered and extended in 1905 and more recently.

Exterior

Former school in Elizabethan idiom. Coursed and snecked coal-measure sandstones on an ashlar plinth, with a slate roof between raised gables. The original building comprised a schoolroom parallel to the road, the dwelling forming a right-angled wing to the rear. Symmetrical, with two projecting gabled bays to the front with 2-light stone mullioned windows, and a central twin 4-light window stone mullioned with a transom. Twin 4-light window in the S gable, the gable having pronounced kneelers and a roundel with running mouchettes above. Two C20 first floor windows. Tall pitched-roof bellcote at the original N gable end, and the original entrance between a thickening of the wall carrying the bellcote under, now incorporated in the 1905 work. This extension provides a new 3-centred door under a raised gable, and a projecting N wing repeating the design of the S gable and extended to the rear, with mullioned and transomed stone windows. The schoolhouse has a basket-headed door and 2-light mullioned and transomed windows, the upper floor lit by a small raised and gabled dormer, jettied on a moulded corbel table. Three tall octagonal stacks central between the schoolroom and house, and two similar stacks on the E gable end.

Interior

The interior has been altered by the insertion of a floor.

Reasons for Listing

Included as a carefully designed elementary school, an interesting demonstration of A W N Pugin's ability to achieve a fine architectural solution to even the smallest commission: here, the careful expression of plan, and the aptness of style to function stand out as Puginian principals. The 1905 extension to the N respects the scale and detail of the original work. Within the Conservation Area of Chirk.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29481687

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

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Renovating Old Houses: Bringing New Life to Vintage Homes (For Pros By Pros)
• 
  London 6: Westminster (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England): Westminster v. 6