History

Late C19 school with some later alterations. Following the death of William Gruffydd Oakeley of Plas Tan-y-bwlch in 1835, the estate was left to his widow Louisa Jane Oakeley and then on to William Edward Oakeley, William Gruffydd's nephew's son. Louisa suddenly left Maentwrog in 1868 and did not return before her death in 1878. The estate was therefore left under the management of William Edward Oakeley from 1869 onwards and despite the depletion of the family fortune and the decline in the slate industry towards the end of the C19, he embarked on a programme of rebuilding and improvement of the estate. He rebuilt many of the houses in the village and also extended the village with the erection of several new properties to the S and W end of the village. One of the buildings built at this time was the school, erected in 1871-2.

Exterior

Late C19, 2-storey school building. The principal range faces the road to W, a 3-window front with the main entrance under a lean-to slate roofed porch across the whole width of the elevation. Built of mortared rubble masonry with large stones as quoins and lintels. Hipped slate roof with decorative ridge tiles and central, timber belltower with pyramidal slate roof; shaped barge boards. Along the main elevation there are 3 hipped gable dormers that break the eaves line; windows are timber casements of 2-lights. The central doorway is under a shallow pitched roofed porch on timber piers and flanking windows are a mix of timber casements of 1 and 2-lights; a shallow window directly to L of entrance. At the L (N) gable is a large fixed light of 12-panes.

Interior

The interior was not inspected at the time of the survey (June/July 2003).

Reasons for Listing

Listed as a little altered late C19 school that retains a good estate character and forms a group with other buildings in the centre of the estate village of Maentwrog.

External Links

• Cadwr Listing
• Wikidata Q29506124

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

• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Specifications for Building Conservation: Volume 1: External Structure: Practical Examples v. 2
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990
• 
  Cumbria: Cumberland, Westmorland and Furness (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Building Small Projects (New Best of Fine Woodworking)
• 
  London 3: North West: North West v. 3 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)