More information : This school is being assessed for listing as part of an English Heritage thematic survey of the surviving schools designed by George Widdows in Derbyshire in 1906-1936. George H. Widdows (1871-1946) is nationally acknowledged as a leading and influential designer of schools in the early 20th century. He was appointed as architect to Derbyshire County Council's Education Committee in 1904, and in 1910 became Chief Architect to the Council. By the time he retired in 1936, he had designed some sixty elementary and seventeen secondary schools. Nine of these have already been listed.
Widdows responded to concerns about health and hygiene in schools by developing a series of revolutionary plan forms which introduced cross ventilation and natural daylight. His schools are characterised by open verandah corridors and large expanses of glazing, including hopper and pivot windows. There are four characteristic plans for the elementary schools built to his designs before 1914. The earliest was the 'marching corridor' type; only five schools were built to this experimental and rather expensive plan. The second type was linear in form, with a larger classroom at each end and often a freestanding hall with linking corridor to the rear. The third type was the most dramatic, a butterfly-shaped plan with pairs of classrooms leading from the corners of a central hall. The fourth type was designed for irregularly-shaped sites and had a corner hall, octagonal in plan. Widdows' designs for elementary schools in the inter-war period were often based on a collegiate system of quadrangle plans. His secondary schools were larger ensembles and tend to have a greater architectural presence. Assessment of these schools takes into account architectural quality and the extent to which the surviving fabric represents Widdows' design innovation in a national context.
Tibshelf secondary school has a confusing plan which can only be worked out with the aid of historic OS maps. The first edition map of 1879 shows a small school for boys and girls already on the site. Its scale and plan implies it was a pre-1870 single schoolroom building. The house in front, now 146-148 High Street, was presumably the schoolmaster's house. By 1899 the school had more than doubled in size, with classrooms added to the rear and the porch extended to the front. By 1917 the school had once more doubled in size, with classrooms added to the south-west and the frontage re-worked. This phase of building is believed to be by George Widdows, dating from 1912. The school has since had large extensions built to the rear, and several new blocks around it. The school is constructed of red brick, with a clay tile roof. The exterior is very plain, with little interest other than two arched entrance porches. The window joinery has been comprehensively replaced with UPVC.
In a paper he presented to the Royal Sanitary Institute on 25 February 1910, Widdows complained that his most troublesome problems were with existing schools. Tibshelf School is an example of a Widdows adaptation of an existing school which does not appear to have been particularly successful. The plan form is confusing, and the exterior presents a rather unattractive hybrid. Recent alterations and extensions have further detracted from its interest. This school does not have special architectural or historic interest on a national level either in the context of C19 school building or within the scope of George Widdows' school design, and therefore does not fulfil the criteria for listing. (1)
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