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 Junior School was completed in 1914 and first appears on the OS map of 1918. It is built of rendered red brick with a clay tile roof. It has a standard linear plan of the second type, with a larger classroom at each end and a verandah corridor on the north side. A freestanding hall was built to the south in the 1960s. There is a modern extension on the east side. The exterior is very plain and has not benefited from being rendered. The verandah corridor has been enclosed and the window joinery has been comprehensively replaced with UPVC.
This school is a plain example of Widdows' second plan type, which has been further denuded by alterations and extensions. The plan was not completed until the 1960s, with the addition of the hall. The exterior is lacking in architectural quality. The enclosure of the verandah corridor has entailed the loss of original fabric, and the loss of all the window joinery is also significant. This 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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