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.
Newton Primary School was completed in 1914 and first appears on the OS map of 1916. It is constructed of red brick, with a clay tile roof. The plan form was a variant of the third 'butterfly' type, described by Widdows as 'Plan No. 3' in a paper he presented to the Royal Sanitary Institute on 25 February 1910. It had a pair of classrooms set splayed at each end of a central linear block formed from a hall, two further classrooms and twin entrances. Sadly, the south side of Newton Primary School was destroyed by fire, and more than a third of the original plan was lost. Replacement blocks were built on the south side to a different footprint, and new extensions were added to the rear (east). The exterior of the original blocks is quite handsome, with a green glazed brick infill to the relieving arches over the main entrance windows, and three good dormers to the hall. There is extensive survival of original brick walls with wrought iron railings. The window joinery survives throughout but the verandah at the front has been bricked in.
This school was a notable example of the work of George Widdows, with a dramatic plan form and distinctive architectural quality to the exterior. Unfortunately, due to the destruction of the south side of the school in a fire and its subsequent rebuilding, the original plan form is no longer legible. The school has lost too many elements of its original design and is now considerably altered and extended. It does not have special architectural or historic interest on a national level and does not fulfil the criteria for listing. (1)
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