Newtown National School
Kerry Road. Demolished.
In 1843 application was made to the National Society for the Education of the Poor for a grant towards the erection of a school for 200 boys and 200 girls. The Committee in Council had granted £317. A site was donated by Miss Harriet Herbert of Dolforgan and Thomas Penson, who was starting work on the new parish church only 200 yards away, was chosen to design it. He handed a silver trowel to Miss Herbert on 23 January 1845, the day of her coming of age, and she laid the foundation stone. Its inscription included the words: Thomas Penson and Son, Architects.
Exterior
Penson adopted the gabled Elizabethan style he had used at the Oswestry National School, and elsewhere, but in a yellowish brick similar to that chosen for the church. It may have been brought by canal from John Howell’s brickworks at Trefarclawdd, near Oswestry. The Tudor windows had prominent hood-moulds: it would be interesting to know whether these were of stone or terracotta. There were tall, slender chimneys. The school was cross-shaped and looks small for the 400 children first envisaged.
The house on the right in this photograph was occupied by the Headmaster. The National Society’s grant included a teacher’s residence, but this house was built in 1881: before then the school house may have been part of the main building.
Later History
The school closed in December, 1968. It was used for a few years by the Engineering Department of the Technical College and for evening classes before eventual demolition. An old people’s complex occupies the site. By the time these photographs were taken Penson’s building had lost some of its details, including the chimneys.
Text: John Hainsworth
Sources
Nixon Oliver: A Short History of St David’s Church, the Kerry Road Primary School and the John Griffith Charity 1847-1997. Parish of Newtown 1887.
The two older photographs are from the above, by kind permission of Newtown Parish.
The two later photographs are by courtesy of Newtown Public Library.
