Building record 11110 - St Mary's Infant School, Overleigh Road

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1872-1875, Metric Ten Foot Scale Town Plan of Chester (Maps and Plans). SCH6780.

St Mary’s Infant School for boys and girls is a former school on Overleigh Road, since converted into a day nursery. First recorded on the OS Town plans the school consisted of a small U shaped building with a central rear projecting wing and a playground to the rear. The present structure has been extended several times in the later 20th century.

<2> Peter de Figueiredo (Independent Consultant), 2017, 2 Overleigh Road, Handbridge, Chester: Heritage Statement, R4725 (Client Report). SCH9501.

The school appears to have been erected in 1876, as an infant school and extended in 1885-6, with further extensions in the 20th century. It had links with the church of St Mary-without-the-Walls (CHER 11089) which is listed Grade II*, and it adjoins the grounds of the former church Rectory, which is listed Grade II. It is also within the Handbridge Conservation Area. Both the church and the school were built with financial support from the Duke of Westminster. It became a combined junior and infant school from 1948, which closed in 2002, and then became a community nursery.

In 1842, according to the Tithe Apportionments (see source 3), the land on which the school currently stands (plots 372 and 373) was occupied by houses and gardens, which were in the ownership of Sir Philip de Malpas Grey and John Grace, the former being rented to cottagers. It is likely, however, that the land was later purchased by the Duke of Westminster, who already owned a large part of the land and properties in Handbridge. This was also the case with the land on which the church was built.

By 1874, the date of the 1st edition OS map (source 4), the symmetrical footprint of theInfant School is clearly depicted. This shows the schoolmaster or mistress’s house on the right and the classrooms in the centre and the left. The land to the rear is marked as a play ground. In 1885-86 the school was extended to provide boys’ accommodation, and the playground was subdivided. It became a combined junior and infant school from 1948.

Confusingly, there is a date stone of 1860 on the north west gable of the current building. Since records refer to a new school of 1861 being built within the walls, it is possible that this stone was transferred from St Mary-on-the-Hill to Handbridge at a later date. The school was built of red brick in Flemish bond in Jacobean style, with stone plinths, windows surrounds, copings and kneelers. The school master/mistress's house is simpler in design than the classrooms, where the scale is grander and the window dressings are more elaborate. The central range of three consisted of a full height hall and stretches back to the rear, while the shorter range on the south west side was always two storeys high. The tall narrow window in the front gable end is almost certainly a later alteration, added when the classroom was partitioned off to create a toilet. The school master/mistress's house is two storeys high, running perpendicular to the road frontage, with a long narrow single storey lean-to outbuilding at the rear enclosing a yard.

The OS plan of c.1874 titles it Infants’ School, but indicates that it was for boys and girls. This may not to have been the case, for in 1885 it is recorded that the school was extended to provide boys’ accommodation. The extension is shown on the 1899 OS map (source 5), and took the form of two further ranges following the same general layout, with the first range set back and the end one brought forward. Later 20th and early 21st century extensions include the present single storey music room along the rear, the kitchens and additional staircase within the rear yard, and the flat-roofed first floor classroom over what was a single storey side wing to the south-west with its rendered wall facing.

<3> See map for surveyor, c.1837-51, Cheshire Tithe Maps and Awards, Chester, St Mary On The Hill, c.1842 (Maps and Plans). SCH3266.

Plot 373: Owner - John Edwards; Occupier - John Phillips; Plot name - Public house yard and garden.
Plot 374: Owner - Marquis of Westminster; Occupiers - William Briggs, Charles Catheral, William Crosby, Elizabeth Davies, John Evans, John Gough, Anne Greg, John Haines, William Ingly, Ellen Lightfoot, Thomas Orme, Samuel Price, Samuel Southerns, William Walley, Elizabeth Yonds; Plot name - Houses Yards and Gardens.

<4> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.

School labelled 'Infant School (Boys & Girls)'

<5> Ordnance Survey, 1896-1898, Ordnance Survey First Revision County Series (Epoch 2) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire (Maps and Plans). SCH3848.

Labelled 'School'