Youth Club

Cadw's description

Location

The youth club stands below and approximately 30m SE of the Church of St Digain, on the NE side of school yard, entered from a gateway on the W side.

History

Formerly the village school. There is some confusion about the early history but according to the Ven Thomas,'The National School was founded in 1827' and the school registers are extant from 1839. No building is shown on the present site on the 1840 Tithe Map and it would seem that this building was erected in 1852 by the Sandbach family of Hafodunos.

Exterior

Simple Gothic Revival style village school. Long, double-height, gable-ended range aligned roughly E-W houses classroom and hall, with entrance and cloakroom in single storey gabled porch to the S. Built of rendered masonry with steeply pitched slate roofs with open eaves and slate ridges, some replaced with clayware ridge tiles. E of porch, lateral chimney built of local snecked stone, narrowing in two stages of offsets to a square shaft attached to a gabled roof, rises to a tall octagonal sandstone ashlar stack with square base set on a chamfered coping. Three and 4-light timber mullioned windows with squat ogee heads, plain tympana and low segmental pointed arches; each light divided into 6-panes. Monolithic slate sills. W gable end has 6-light timber mullioned and transomed window of similar design with small blind oculus in tympanum. The S porch doorway has a low segmental pointed arch and boarded door with ornamented iron strap hinges; to the E of the door a 6-pane single-light window with squat ogee head. Later schoolhouse adjoins E gable end.

Interior

Classroom to W; hall to E. Open rafter roof with scissor-braced trusses. Partition between classroom and hall has a segmental pointed head window at high level with 3-lights, diamond mullions, squat ogee heads and diagonal leaded glazing. Hall has fireplace in S wall. A painted wooden achievements plaque hangs on the N wall.

Reason for designation

Included as a good and unaltered example of a C19 village school and for group value with church and schoolhouse.