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Summary

Description

Former school and school-house in terrace, with principal elevation to east, comprising single storey and attic 3-bay teacher's house and school-room of circa 1827 to north, with mid 19th century single storey and attic 3-bay teacher's house added to south. Harled walls with painted margins to windows.

1827 building: asymmetrical east elevation, door with plate glass fanlight in centre bay; windows in flanking bays (smaller at left), gabled concrete porch to outer left. 2-bay north gable with windows at ground and attic in bay to right only.

Mid 19th century building: near-symmetrical, east elevation comprising vertically-boarded timber door and cat-slide roof to porch in centre bay, windows at ground in outer bays, dormers with harled gabled dormerheads breaking eaves in outer bays.

Timber sash and case glazing, 12 and 6-pane to ground floor and attic respectively of earlier building; 4-pane to later building. Purple-grey slate roof to earlier building with rooflights to south half of attic, red fishscale tile roof to later building. Stugged sandstone gablehead stack and skew-copes to north gable, harled ridge stack to earlier building, and gablehead stacks to later building, all coped, with circular cans.

WALL: remains of random rubble wall adjacent to north gable.

Statement of Special Interest

These buildings form an interesting group of local importance on the hillside above Greenbank and is a rare example of an early 19th century parish school. The ridge stack, differently-sized windows, and rooflights suggest the exterior of the earlier part to the north was originally much as it appears now with a schoolroom and teacher's living area on the ground floor and small bedroom in the attic. The later concrete porch suggest there may have been a separate entrance door for the teacher's accommodation to the outer left of the elevation. The purpose of the later building to the south was likely to have been to provide better accommodation for the teacher. The older building was probably adapted at this time to cater for an increase in pupil numbers.

The footprint of the building on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey Map, (surveyed in 1878) is similar to the current footprint, which dates the southern part of the building to the mid 19th century.

The 1696 Education Act established the principle of a school for every parish in Scotland. However, attendance was not compulsory. In the 18th and 19th century school buildings were typically of a domestic scale and of traditional construction, as one or two rooms was adequate. The 1872 Education (Scotland) Act placed responsibility for education in the hands of locally elected school boards and elementary education was made compulsory for all children aged 5 to 13. The boards were also responsible for providing adequate school buildings and there was a subsequent explosion in school building in Scotland. School buildings dating before the 1872 Act and surviving in close or near original form are rare.

John J Graham notes in his book that the school here was built in 1827 as a parish school and that North Yell and Fetlar parish, where the building is situated, was the last parish in Shetland to establish a school. The first teacher, a Mr William Craigie, who came from Fetlar, was very unhappy with the poor state of the building, as the roof leaked and the school room was dark. Although the building conformed to a standard plan of schoolhouses of the early 19th century, it had been built to 'as limited dimensions as the law allows' (Graham, 1998). The book notes that the building was repaired in the 1830s. The school was replaced by a Board School in 1879.

Listed building record revised in 2015.

References

Bibliography

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