More information : This school is being considered for listing as part of a thematic survey of the surviving schools designed by George Widdows in Derbyshire in 1906-1936. George Widdows (1871-46) is nationally acknowledged as a leading designer of schools and an exponent of advanced ideas on school planning. He was appointed as architect to Derbyshire County Council's Education Committee in 1904, and in 1910 was appointed its Chief Architect. He retired in 1936, by which time he had designed some sixty elementary and seventeen secondary schools. Nine of these have already been listed.
Widdows' revolutionary plan forms responded to concerns about health and hygiene in schools, and introduced cross ventilation and sunshine. There are four characteristic plans for the elementary schools built 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 and more standardised, with a large classroom at either end and a freestanding hall to the rear. The earliest examples of this type date from around 1910-11. The third type is the most dramatic, being butterfly plans with pairs of classrooms leading from the corners of a central hall. The fourth type was designed for awkward sites, and has a corner hall, octagonal in plan. The secondary schools were larger and had a greater variety of rooms, with large assembly halls, laboratories and art rooms as well as classrooms, and the buildings have a greater architectural presence.
Scargill School in West Hallam was built in 1921 and is one of the earlier of Widdows' inter-war schools. It is built of brick with a plain tile roof, and was built on a T-plan of the second type, with a verandah wing to the rear. The school is mentioned by name in Widdows' sanitary article of 1910 as an example of his employment of the second type. The T-plan can be seen on the OS map of 1937; however this plan form can no longer be recognised on the modern map as the school has been greatly extended on all sides. The verandah corridors appear to have been enclosed or removed and the window joinery has been comprehensively replaced with UPVC.
This school is an example of the inter-war work of George Widdows; however the original plan form is no longer clearly legible as the school has undergone significant alteration and extension. The loss of all the window joinery is significant, and despite the school being mentioned as an example by Widdows in his 1910 sanitary article, it has suffered alteration to such an extent that it does not retain its special interest. Therefore Scargill Church of England Aided Primary School 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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