Survey Data
Reg No
11807010
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Original Use
School
In Use As
Community centre
Date
1855 - 1860
Coordinates
283309, 227187
Date Recorded
25/04/2002
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey rubble stone former national school, dated 1856. Extended, c.1900, comprising single-bay single-storey linking entrance bay with two-bay single-storey rubble stone wing to south-east having three-bay side elevation to south-east. Renovated, c.2000. Now in use as community centre. Gable-ended roof with slate (hipped to additional wing). Clay ridge tiles. Cast-iron rainwater goods (on cut-stone eaves course to original block). Iron rainwater goods to additional block. Flat-roof to linking entrance bay behind gable. Materials not visible. Uncoursed rubble stone walls. Repointed, c.2000, to additional block. Cut-stone date stone/plaque. Shallow segmental-headed window openings (pointed-arch window opening to side (south-east) elevation of original block). Stone sills. Red brick dressings. Replacement timber casement windows, c.2000. Square-headed door opening. Red brick dressings with red brick gable over. Replacement diagonal tongue-and-groove timber panelled door, c.2000. Overlight. Set back from road in grounds shared with Catholic church. Tarmacadam grounds to site.
Appraisal
Prosperous National School (former), probably built under patronage of the adjacent Catholic church, is a fine rubble stone structure that has been considerably altered in the late twentieth century – the replacement of the original fenestration with unsympathetic substitutes has detracted somewhat from the original character of the building, and the repair to the stone work is more satisfactory to the original portion than to the additional block, which has been inappropriately dressed with a cement-based mortar forming prominent joints. The construction of the building using rubble stone with red brick dressings is an attractive exercise in polychromy and provides an attractive visual feature to the locality. The school, now in use as a community centre, is of social and historic interest for having formerly acted as the earliest surviving educational facility in the village of Prosperous.