Conservation Area (CA)
Ovingdean CA
Local Listing Reference
LLHA0155
Description
Small single storey building built of field flints with red brick dressings beneath a steeply pitched clay-tiled roof, with additional entrance porch. Built in 1873 as a ‘National School’ but closed due to dwindling pupil numbers in 1907. In use as a private nursery school since 1993. Source: Ovingdean Conservation Area Character Statement
A. Architectural, Design and Artistic Interest
i A good, simple example of a local style and materials applied to a national form of building.
B. Historic and Evidential Interest
i National schools were founded in 1811 in England and Wales by the National Society for Promoting Religious Education. They provided elementary education, in accordance with the teaching of the Church of England, to the children of the poor. They were mostly absorbed into the state school system by the end of the 19th century. The first one in Brighton was in Church Street in 1829.
E. Rarity and Representativeness
ii This is a late and short-lived example of a National School but is a comparatively rare surviving example of a National School building in Brighton & Hove. It is also an unusually small example.
F. Intactness
i Externally the building remains largely as original in its original garden setting with low flint boundary walls.
Date of inclusion
2015
