Jenner's School is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

former school in Bath Road,

Cricklade Cricklade is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in north Wiltshire, England, midway between Swindon and Cirencester. It is the first downstream town on the Thames. The parish population at the 2011 census was 4,227. History Cricklade ...

, Wiltshire, England. It was built in 1652 and then became a

workhouse In Britain and Ireland, a workhouse (, lit. "poor-house") was a total institution where those unable to support themselves financially were offered accommodation and employment. In Scotland, they were usually known as Scottish poorhouse, poorh ...

. It became a school again in the 19th century and is now a community hall.

History

The school was built in 1652. It was founded by Robert Jenner (died 1651), a goldsmith of London, and Member of Parliament for

, by a legacy from his estate which included £20 per year for the

schoolmaster A schoolmaster, or simply master, is a male school teacher. The usage first occurred in England in the Late Middle Ages and early modern period. At that time, most schools were one-room or two-room schools and had only one or two such teacher ...

. There is a monument to Jenner in the north aisle of the parish church,

St Sampson's St Sampson (Guernésiais: ) is a parish of Guernsey, an island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, directly north of St Peter Port. It is on the north-west and north-east coasts of the island and is split into two sections, intersected by Vale. The p ...

, which is adjacent to the school. Only boys were admitted and they were taught in Latin, as stipulated in Jenner's will. The school had closed by c. 1690. From 1719 the building was the parish

, and it was enlarged in 1726–27. In 1840 most of the building was bought for use again as a school, and in 1843 a government building grant was obtained for work to be carried out on the structure. This became St Sampson's National School. National schools were set up in the 19th century by the

National Society for Promoting Religious Education The National Society (Church of England and Church in Wales) for the Promotion of Education, often just referred to as the National Society, and since 2016 also as The Church of England Education Office (CEEO), is significant in the history of ed ...

. These schools provided elementary education, in accordance with the teaching of the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

, to the children of the poor. In 1923 it was changed to an infants' school. The school closed in 1959. The former schoolroom became the Cricklade parish hall and was renamed the Jenner Hall. It is run by a charity.

Architecture

The two-storey three-

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

building is of

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

rubble with

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

dressings and a stone slate roof. The northern end of the building houses the single-storey schoolroom. The entrance is via a

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d porch on the north side.

References

External links

{{Schools in Wiltshire Grade II* listed buildings in Wiltshire Buildings and structures completed in 1652 Former school buildings in the United Kingdom Defunct schools in Wiltshire Cricklade