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Summary

Former location of an early 20th century school, replacing or extending a Victorian school, and used until the later 20th century

Associated Legal Designations or Protected Status

• Conservation Area: Newbury Town Centre

Monument Type(s):

• INFANT SCHOOL (Late 19th century to Edwardian - 1880 AD? (pre) to 1909 AD (pre))
• INFANT SCHOOL (Edwardian to Late 20th century - Present - 1909 AD to 1985 AD)

Full Description

A site to the east of Bartholomew Street and south of Station Road in Newbury has been used for educational purposes since at least the late 19th century, by an array of different establishments with changing names. A rectangular building measuring c 17m x 9m, aligned parallel to Station Road, is marked on the Town Plan of 1880-81 <1> as a school for Girls and Infants.

The name of this Victorian school is uncertain: the Berkshire Record Office holds log books for Newbury Infants’ Council School, Station Road from 1909 to 1931 and also an architectural drawing of 1931-1932 <2>. Mapping evidence indicates this building had been extended by several metres or rebuilt by 1899 <3>, but by the 3rd Epoch OS mapping another much larger school had been constructed further east at right angles to Station Road <4>.

West Berkshire Museum has photographs showing the ceremony at the opening of this bigger building on 10/03/1909 <5>, assumed to be a secondary school. However it is labelled as the new Council Schools, implying more than one establishment on the site. Possibly the Infants School was also remodelled at the same time. An aerial photograph from 1937 shows the two school buildings from the south <6> and they are quite similar in appearance. Both are two storey blocks with rows of large sash windows along each side. They have steep hipped rooves, although the larger school has a more complex double set with flat roofing in between, and also a white turret, presumably housing a bell. The Infants School has external access to its upper floor with a staircase and iron balcony along its southern wall.

The Newbury Senior Council school was one of several buildings severely damaged by bombs dropped from a German plane in February 1943 <7> but a 1952 aerial photograph <8> shows that the other school building survived intact. However the remnants of the Senior School appear to have been repaired and reused as Eastfields County Infant School <9>, although both school buildings are marked on the 5th Epoch OS mapping of 1967 <10> as community centres.

A new school was subsequently built at this site in the late 20th century (St Nicolas' C of E Junior School), but not on the same footprint as any previous building. A brief history of St Nicolas' School <11> indicates that it had used this site as overspill from its Enborne Road building, with the 'Annexe' housing younger children from after the Second World War. It is presumed therefore that the Annexe was the western two storey building, and that both this and the stub of the Senior School were removed before the new St Nicolas' School opened in 1990.

Sources and further reading

Related Monuments

Associated Excavations and Fieldwork

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