Building record 1746/3/0 - Harthill School and School Master’s House, Harthill

<1> Historic England, 2011, The National Heritage List for England, 1230388 (Web Site). SCH6528.

School and master's house: dated 1868 for Robert Barbour. Ashlar red sandstone, Welsh slate roof and 3 stone chimneys. H-shaped plan. 1 and 2-storey, 5-bay front. Left end bay is school room with triple tall lancets with glazing bars with a clock in a Gothick architrave below a square wooden bellcote, with a tall pyramidal lead roof, on the ridge. 2nd bay has a gabled porch with shoulded entrance flanked by stiff-leaf capitaled columns. Date and Barbour arms above. Remainder of centre is of 1-storey with shouldered lintels to a door and windows and 2 added dormers about. Right end bay under gable has a bay window below and large light above. To left schoolroom bays divided bv buttresses.

<2> Purcell, 2023, Harthill Hub and Trails Heritage Impact Assessment, R4698 (Client Report). SCH9454.

A heritage assessment and photographic record was produced in 2023 for Harthill School and School Master’s House (Grade II Listed). The site is on Harthill Lane opposite All Saint’s Church (Grade II* Listed) and a small village green at the heart of the village of Harthill, Cheshire. With the exception of the earlier church, the buildings around the village appear to date from the mid-19th century, built in a Gothic style.

The school first appears on OS First Edition mapping (see source 3) with the site identified as a school for both boys and girls. The extant fountain, also Grade II Listed, set in the boundary wall, is also depicted (see CHER 1746/3/1).

The school, which is built of local red sandstone with a Welsh slate roof, is roughly C-shaped in plan with a 20th century extension to the rear. It is built over two stories with a bellcote above the main building with a lead pyramidal roof. Beneath the bellcote is a clock set between two Corinthian columns with a Gothic relieving arch with chevrons above. The gable end faces the road with tri-partite windows with Gothic arches. A small projecting gable with a Gothic arch and chevrons flanked by two Corinthian columns acts as the entrance to the School. Above the entrance is the Barbour coat of arms carved in stone with a date of 1868 either side. The central range is slightly lower with the roof sloping down to the ground floor level. There are four narrow windows with square headed carved stone lintels and the door to the School Master’s House. Not symmetrically placed are two 20th century, square, projecting dormers of lead with a fleur-de-lis pattern. The side elevation of the School has a series of stone buttresses with Gothic lancet windows between. The rear elevation is mostly obscured by a mid-20th century extension. The main hall of the school is a double height space with the trusses supported on small corbels. The space is not quite open to the roof as there is a small attic. The space has paraquet flooring, dado height timber panelling and a picture rail. There is a stone plaque within the wall giving the date of construction, architect’s details and a panel of the school honours list (1923-37). The date stone both on the exterior and interior of the building date it to 1868 with it attributed to the architect Thomas Lockwood and built for Robert Barbour of Bolesworth. The interior datestone further elaborates that following a fire the building was rebuilt by Thomas Lockwood’s grandson, Philip Lockwood, in 1923.

A lithograph held within Cheshire Archives shows the building as proposed by the architect c.1868. Differences from the extant building include the large timber doors with iron straps to both the main building and the house, the bellcote of the building was more slender than the extant bellcote, suggesting it has been replaced (possibly after the 1923 fire). There is also small dormer ventilation along the School roof which no longer remain. The connecting range also shows the original dormer detail before they were replaced in the 20th century with it being a small, pitched gables in a Gothic style. Late 19th century photos of the School show the building largely as it exists today, with exception to the original dormer arrangement.

The School Master’s House has its entrance in the connecting central range. The gable end faces the road, and the building is of two storeys. At ground floor there is a projecting window with a slate roof supported on stone corbels. The window is a divided by two stone mullions. The side elevation is plainer with two windows with stone lintels and one Gothic projecting dormer at eaves level. The rear has a small lean-to building, a large modern conservatory obscures most of the rear elevation of the main building. The rear has two 20th century, square dormers similar to those to the main elevation. The School Master’s House has one end chimney (at the rear) and one central chimney stack with one stack in the central connecting range, all of stone. Inside the house, the entrance hall has a red quarry tiled floor with a staircase leading to the first floor with square balusters. The living room, once two rooms with a central fireplace, has been opened into one space. The front window has as decorative timber surround featuring carved chevrons and pillars. The only remaining fireplace, in the living room, is a modern woodburner with a modernsurround. Doors throughout are 19th century four-panelled doors.

The site boundary along the road has a low stone boundary wall with a timber gate accessing the School with rounded stone columns with chevron decoration. Dividing the School and School Master’s House is a cast iron fence with triple spikes.

<3> Ordnance Survey, 1871-1882, Ordnance Survey County Series (Epoch 1) 25 inch to 1 mile - Cheshire (Maps and Plans). SCH2462.