button to main menu  Old Cumbria Gazetteer
school, Cockermouth
Cockermouth School
locality:-   Cockermouth
civil parish:-   Cockermouth (formerly Cumberland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   school
coordinates:-   NY12713010
1Km square:-   NY1230
10Km square:-   NY13

evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Cmd 54 4) 
placename:-  Cockermouth Grammar School
source data:-   Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.
"Grammar School"

evidence:-   old map:- Bowen and Kitchin 1760
source data:-   Map, hand coloured engraving, A New Map of the Counties of Cumberland and Westmoreland Divided into their Respective Wards, scale about 4 miles to 1 inch, by Emanuel Bowen and Thomas Kitchin et al, published by T Bowles, Robert Sayer, and John Bowles, London, 1760.
image
BO18NY12.jpg
two crosses potent, for two schools 
item:-  Armitt Library : 2008.14.10
Image © see bottom of page

evidence:-   descriptive text:- Ford 1839 (3rd edn 1843) 
item:-  library
source data:-   Guide book, A Description of Scenery in the Lake District, by Rev William Ford, published by Charles Thurnam, Carlisle, by W Edwards, 12 Ave Maria Lane, Charles Tilt, Fleet Street, William Smith, 113 Fleet Street, London, by Currie and Bowman, Newcastle, by Bancks and Co, Manchester, by Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, and by Sinclair, Dumfries, 1839.
image FD01P081, button  goto source
Page 81:-  "..."
"... The grammar-school in the church-yard was founded in 1676, by Lord Wharton, Bishop Smith, and others; a library containing valuable books in divinity is attached to it. ..."

evidence:-   probably database:- Listed Buildings 2010
placename:-  Cumberland Industrial School for Boys
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"CUMBERLAND INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL FOR BOYS / / / COCKERMOUTH / ALLERDALE / CUMBRIA / II / 490047 /"
source data:-  
courtesy of English Heritage
"Former Industrial School, later Grammar School, and presently office and workshop complex. Opened in 1881 as the Cumberland Industrial School, converted to offices and workshops late C20. Red brick, rising from a shallow blue brick plinth with ashlar sandstone dressings and blue brick blue detailing."
"PLAN: Extensive courtyard plan, with north facing administrative and entrance buildings to the north, linking with the U-shaped main school complex ranged around 3 sides of a large south-facing courtyard."
"EXTERIOR: North elevation made up of single and 2-storeyed buildings forming an asymmetrical attached range to the rear of the courtyard complex. Central entrance building of domestic form, 2 storeys with central doorway below semi-circular overlight, and with flanking full-height canted bay window, ashlar sill bands, 4 over 4 pane sash windows and a hipped roof. The rear of the building is attached to a 2- storeyed, 10 bay rear projection from the central range of the south facing courtyard complex, set below a shallow catslide roof. At the left-hand end of this projecting range, a single-storeyed L-shaped block of 7 bays extends northwards, and returns eastwards, aligning with the front of the entrance building. The 8-bay north elevation rises to a storey-and-a-half at the east end, below a hipped roof. To the right of the entrance building are 2 narrow single-storeyed projecting wings, both linked to the rear of the courtyard complex. At the right-hand end, an L-shaped 2- storeyed wing, possibly a near contemporary addition, with narrow linking corridor, set at an angle to the main east-west axis of the site, and with canted bay windows to the south-west and south-east elevations. Throughout the north facing elevation, the component structures display common detailing, with multi-pane sash windows, ashlar head and sill banding and hipped roofs with oversailing eaves. South (courtyard)elevation with symmetrical east-west range, 6:8:6 bays, the 8 bay part of 3 storeys, the flanking ranges of 2 storeys, all with tall semi-circular arch-headed ground floor windows. Above, window openings set within ashlar head and sill bands. 8-bay 2-storeyed wings to either end of the east-west range, with lower 4-bay end sections, all with hipped roofs. The east wing has a glazed lean-to canopy carried on cast-iron columns, whilst the wide ground floor openings to the west wing, now infilled, have semi-cicular arched heads. At the north end of the west range, a projecting 2-storey attached building with hipped roof stands adjacent to a wide semi-circular arched opening within the end elevation of the storey-and-a-half part of the north frontage range, close to the position of a former tall octagonal chimney."
"INTERIOR: Not inspected."
"HISTORY: The Cumberland Industrial School for Boys was opened in 1881 by the Home Secretary Sir William Harcourt. Industrial schools were established to provide practical education and training for children less well-suited to academic tuition throughout the C19, and were often sited in rural locations. The 1898 O.S. map shows the school sited within a garden setting, on the undeveloped south-east edge of Cockermouth, opposite the town cemetery. The school remained in use until its closure in 1921, and later reopened as the Cockermouth Secondary School. After the 1945 Education Act, it became the Cockermouth Grammar School, ramaining in such use until its closure in 1990."
"An extensive and well-preserved purpose- built Industrial School of 1881, one of the most complete survivals of this specialist form of training school, and one of the less well- known aspects of the School Board system of the late C19."

button to lakes menu  Lakes Guides menu.