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SU 9949NE & TQ 0049NW GUILDFORD C.P. HIGH STREET (South Side) 5/117 & 6/117 1/5/53 The Grammar School

GV I

Grammar School. First range to south (rear) 1557, west wing 1569, east wing begun in 1571 with floors and stairs complete by 1581 and windows inserted in 1582 and north wing (front range) completed in 1586. Remodelled in 1889 and south wing refurbished, following a fire in 1965. Brick with flint panels and clunch dressings on rear wings, rubble stone on remainder, limewashed on street front with timber framed gallery across rear of front range; stone roofs. Quadrangular plan around central courtyard 29' 3" x 36 feet. Original schoolhouse in south wing with Master- house in west wing(since converted to more classrooms). Ushers house in east wing and library/gallery across front. Three storeys and attics on entrance front with lower two storey gate lodge to left, remainder two storeys with attics. Prominent and decorative stacks with paired shafts on common offset plinth to left, multiple stacks to right. Offset stone and brick stacks to side wings and three stacks across rear wing. Entrance front: Diagonal angle buttresses to ends rising through three storeys with offsets, plain buttresses either side of centre. String courses over ground and first floors rising up to form label mouldings over windows and door. Three gables on front each under spherical finial and with two arched light attic window in chamfered surround and under label moulding. Outer gables each have paired two arched light leaded casements in common chamfered surrounds and with labels above. 6 round-arched mullioned and transomed leaded casement window under label moulding on second floor of central gable, square Coat of Arms below in guilloche band and panel underneath reading "SCHOLA REGIA GRAMMATICALIS EDVARDI SEXTI 1552". Central oak panelled door with studs and shell pattern arched top panel approached up small flight of steps and with chamfered surround and label moulding over. Blocked first floor window in left hand gateway and simpler panelled door below in plain chamfered surround. Left and right hand return fronts have very irregular leaded casement fenestration, larger mullioned and transomed arched head casements on gable ends of rear wing. Rear - South elevation (facing garden):- decorative tile and stone quoining and patterning. 7 gabled casement dormers in roof, each of two arched lights. Three 3-light mullioned casements across the first floor, 4 below. C19 canted bay to left end with leaded windows on the first floor, casement doors in flanking lights below and tile hanging between. Mullioned and transomed window ground floor left of centre, pointed- arched recess to centre under stack with arched doorway in chamfered surround. Courtyard:- Timber framed gallery to rear of front range, with timbers exposed, on pedestalled posts. Stone dressed arched-head windows in side wings with gabled dormers above, two windows with ogee moulded jambs on gallery. Pedimented entrance to centre of south range. Interiors:- badly damaged in south wing by fire but re-instated. Original plan was of two long rooms 65' long by 22' wide. Queen post roof in "The Big School" with painted texts on the beams, butt-purlins and dado panelling on walls, panelling in Austin Room and fine chained library in front range. Some chalk fireplaces in headmasters lodgings and schoolrooms, that in "The Big School" with Decorated style panel above. The original bequest for the school was left by Robert Beckingham in 1512 and the buildings were sponsored by John Austen and William Hamonde, two trustees. The first charter for "The Free Grammar School of King Edward" was granted in January 1552/3. An important historical landmark in the upper part of Guildford High Street.

V.C.H. (1967 EDN) VOL III pp.551-2. PEVSNER: BUILDINGS OF ENGLAND, SURREY (1971) p.278. G. C. WILLIAMSON: ROYAL GRAMMAR SCHOOL, GUILDFORD (Bell 1924) AUSTEN MSS: GUILDFORD MUNIMENT ROOM(Early History of School) O. MANNING & W. BRAY: HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF THE COUNTY OF SURREY (1804).

Listing NGR: TQ0000549572