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Summary

School built in 1859, in Gothic Revival style, with later 19th century additions. Double courtyard plan, including two single storey teachers' houses to front block. Now used as a Youth and Drama Centre.

Location

Protected Status

• Listed Building (II) 1208428: HAYWARDS OLD SCHOOL AND DRAMA CENTRE

Other References/Statuses

• Old Listed Building Ref (II): 386986

Monument Type(s) and Dates

• SCHOOL (XIX - 1859 AD to 1894 AD (Between))

Full description

Ordnance Survey, 1880-1899, First Edition Ordnance 25 inch map (Cartographic). SDV336179.

'Hayward Schools (Boys & Girls)' shown as a group of adjoining buildings on the south side of East Street.

Ordnance Survey, 1904 - 1906, Second Edition Ordnance Survey 25 inch Map (Cartographic). SDV325644.

'Hayward Schools' shown.

Department of National Heritage, 1992, Crediton (List of Blds of Arch or Historic Interest). SDV341235.

Haywards Old School and the Drama Centre. School, incorporating 2 teachers' houses, now used as Youth and Drama Centres. 1859 by John Hayward,architect,of Exeter, with additions of 1874, 1890 and 1894 (Bovett) in a matching style. Snecked local volcanic trap with Ham Hill dressings; asbestos slate roof replacing natural slate; brick and stone stacks. Gothic Revival style. Plan: Double courtyard plan, including two teachers' houses to front block, roofed parallel to the road. Exterior: Houses single storey and attic; classroom blocks single storey. Symmetrical 1:3:3:1-bay front, the houses in the centre, each with 2 gabled dormers, the gable ends of the classrooms to left and right. Axial brick stacks with shafts with brick bands. Deep eaves with bargeboards decorated with various designs of blind tracery with apex pendants and wrought iron finials. Each house has a central 2-centred arched chamfered stone doorway with a hoodmould with label stops, original ledged and braced boarded doors with ornamental strap hinges flanked by 3-light stone hollow-chamfered mullioned windows with hoodmoulds and label stops. Similar 2-light dormer windows. The gable ends of the classrooms each have large 4-light hollow-chamfered stone mullioned windows with high transoms, the right hand classroom has a 20th century doorway with a boarded door inserted to the left. At the left end of the range a probably secondary 3-bay classroom block roofed parallel to the road, with an end stack and 3 2-light mullion-and-transom windows. The left return of the left classroom wing has a large shouldered lateral stack with set-offs and 4 3-light hollow-chamfered mullion and transomed windows. 20th century door added to the right. The matching right hand classroom wing probably similar but is partly concealed. The remainder of the building is treated in the same style with mullion-and-transom windows and large lateral stacks. Interior: Not inspected but may retain original open classroom roofs and other features. The school was built with money from the early 17th century charity of Sir John Hayward, a Rochester merchant, the charity administered by Buller of Downes. Bovett suggests that the former combined English and Blue Schools, which had been sited at Penton since 1814, were transferred to this building in 1859. A plaque records that Ernest Bevin was a pupil at the school between 1890 and 1892. (Bovett, Robert: Historical Notes on Devon Schools: Devon County Council: P81-82).

Exeter Archaeology, 2003, Archaeological Asssessment of Land off Charlotte Street, Crediton, 4 (Report - Assessment). SDV352118.

Hayward boys and girls schools in East Street were bujilt with funds from a charitable trust set up in 1635 by Sir John Hayward of Rochester. The schools were built by 1860 at which time they taught 140 boys and 90 girls. The school buildings have been altered and the complex extended with a new school, Hayward Primary School, constructed to the south of the old buildings.

Mid Devon District Council, 2003, Crediton Conservation Area Appraisal, Section 3 (Report - non-specific). SDV345978.

A plaque at Old Haywards School notes that Ernest Bevin attended the school.

Gent, T. H., 2007, Review of the Archaeological Evidence for the Location of the Saxon Minster at Crediton, 4 (Report - Assessment). SDV339904.

During an evaluation on the site of the new teaching block at Hayward's School in 2002, part of a building of the 14th/15th century was exposed, with some evidence for metal working activity.

Ordnance Survey, 2013, MasterMap (Cartographic). SDV350786.

Green, C., 2016, Proposed Expansion of Crediton Haywards Primary School, Dean Street, Crediton, Devon (Report - Survey). SDV360195.

In broad terms, Haywards Old School comprises four ranges enclosing a central courtyard with a further courtyard to the south. The former youth centre occupied the eastern range and part of the south range, overlooking the present primary school campus, with car park and playground to the east and 20th century school buildings to the south and south-east. A nursery and pre-school occupy the western range and part of the south range, while the two cottages of the north range overlooking East Street appear to be privately owned.

Haywards Old School is a Grade II Listed building (List entry no. 1208428) first designated in 1992. The property is located within the Crediton Conservation Area, first designated by Mid Devon Council in 1981, extended in 1990, and further amended in 2003 (Mid Devon Council 2003).

Hayward’s School opened on 9 January 1860. Hayward’s School was built at a cost of £3,000, the contractor being John Mason of Exeter and the architect Mr Hayward (Labbett 1987).

The tithe map of 1841 shows the plots of land later occupied by Hayward’s Old School encompassing
four separate building ranges, probably all relating to the tannery complex (see Figure 2; a). The
1889 OS map (both the 1:500 and 25”) show Hayward Schools (Boys and Girls).

The frontage of Hayward’s Old School is predominantly unaltered from c. 1874, the only
appreciable difference being the absence of the bell-cote to the gable end of the east range, and
the loss of the two pinnacles above the centre of the east and west ranges

The original school comprised four ranges surrounding a central courtyard which appears to have been used as a playground, a central division presumably separating the boys from the girls. A photograph dated c. 1906 shows a playground on the eastern side of the school, indicating that the two playgrounds existed either simultaneously (perhaps for different ages) or that one replaced the other.

Overall, the present appearance of Haywards Old School is wholly recognisable from the original building. The most significant relevant change involved extensions to the south of the east and west ranges. This had occurred by 1874, and by 1905 both extensions were extended yet again, with a separate set of buildings to the south effectively creating a southern enclosed courtyard. The secondary phase of additions also involved the construction of a narrow extension alongside the south extension, providing an entrance hall for the south room and south extension, and a small room. The latter retains rows of coat hooks at adult height, suggesting this was the teacher’s cloakroom.

Sources / Further Reading

Associated Monuments

Associated Finds: none recorded

Associated Events

• EDV4348 - Assessment of a Survey Searching for the Saxon Minster in Crediton
• EDV7272 - An Historic Building Appraisal: Haywards Primary School, Dean Street, Crediton, Devon. (Ref: C1/SBR/16/HCD)

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