1899 – Schools of the Holy Rood, Swindon, Wiltshire

“This block of buildings is now being erected by Messrs. J. Long and Sons, of Bath, from designs by Messrs. Silcock and Reay. The school building contains three classrooms for boys, girls, and infants, each capable of accommodating 40 children, and in addition there are three spacious cloakrooms and a teachers’ room, etc. A wide corridor runs the whole length of the classrooms and connects the school with the hall, in which, on occasion, a class of 60 children may be taught.

The interior of the hall consists of timber framing filled in with sand-faced bricks to a height of 10ft., above which are the windows. Features of the room are the decorative plaster panels, which are modelled in low relief and slightly wiped with colour. The walls of the class- rooms, etc., are lined throughout with brown silt-glazed bricks to a height of 5ft., above which they are plastered. The floors of the class-rooms and hall, as well as the galleries, are all of pitch-pine blocks, the corridor and cloak-rooms being tiled. The ceiling joists are exposed and stained dark brown. The walling is of sand-faced bricks and Bath stone dressings. The windows are glazed with lead lights, and the roof covered with green slates. Special provision has been made for efficient ventilation, and the building will be heated with radiators. The latrines, which are of the latest pattern, are situated on one side of the playground.” Published in The Building News, June 16 1899