Village Hall

Cadw's description

Location

Located on the E side of the road leading from The Herberts to Llandough village, approximately 1km S of Llandough village. Set back off the road behind a pair of iron gates, set in front of the Rectory.

History

Originally built as a school and schoolhouse in 1859 by John Prichard while in partnership with John Pollard Seddon (1852-1863), Diocesan architects of Llandaff. Prichard was a pupil of A.W. Pugin. The school was converted from a barn at a cost of ú350 and was completed by 1859, when the "Ecclesiologist" commented on the design that "The style is First Pointed almost too decided and elaborate for the size and destination of the building." Building News commented upon the drawing exhibited by Seddon at the Royal Academy in 1861 that it possessed "The good qualities that are incorporated in all their designs. The dressings are of white freestone, with occasional black blocks, the whole design as it is, is worked out in a vigorous manner."

Exterior

Victorian First Pointed Gothic Style. Single storey school, now used as village hall, with two-storey gabled schoolhouse at E end with asymmetric gable. Small half hipped, lean-to at E end with a long, slated lean-to porch to front elevation, bracketed and in the manner of a pentice. Elevations of coursed limestone with steeply pitched, slated roof (replacement synthetic slates), with stone corbelled eaves. Front elevation lit by arcade of five trefoil-headed lancets, (now with plain glazing) with two-pane fixed lights and carved zig-zag decoration above, with hoodmould over. Between second and third light and fourth and fifth light arcading runs down to form a plain round shaft with complexly moulded capital. Above the porch are a pair of two-pane sashes beneath a two-centred, voussoired arch, with polychromy and hoodmould above with the inscription in the tympanum "Train the child in the way he should go". The asymmetrical coped gable has dog-tooth decoration to the verge and a carved finial depicting the Archangel Gabriel. Pair of original boarded doors with Gothic door furniture, with pair of two pane sashes to right hand side. Single trefoil-headed lancet to front elevation of lean-to with voussoired arch above with polychromy. E elevation has a pair of decorative, dressed stone chimney stacks, in medieval style with octagonal bases and twin shafts. Gable end has a high set, triple square-headed light, with C12 style round shafts as mullions, now blocked , with ashlar, squat stack, rising from the coped gable, and pierced by a small trefoil headed lancet. The W gable has a pair of long, later lancets beneath a relieving arch with cinquefoil in a roundel set above. An octagonal shafted chimney rises from the coped gable. To the W is a later, single storey, gabled addition of late Victorian character which intersects the buttressing on the SW corner. The rear elevation is unlit, with a small slated lean-to outshut.

Interior

Simple interior, with plain boarded ceiling. Only decorative feature is the arcading to the rear of the lancet lights to the front elevation which has simple shafts with nail-head decoration to the capitals to match those of the exterior.

Reason for designation

Listed grade II as a good example of a Victorian school and of the work of the Prichard and
Seddon partnership in the First Pointed Gothic Revival style.