More information : Glebe Junior School, Bolsover was designed by the architect George H. Widdows (1871-1946) and was completed in 1911. It was one of a large number of new schools built to Widdows' designs by Derbyshire County Council in the early 20th century. Derbyshire had the greatest percentage increase in population in the country in the 1890s, particularly due to the growth of the coal mining and textile manufacturing communities in the east of the county. Widdows had come to Derbyshire in 1897 as Chief Architectural Assistant to the Derby Corporation. Following the 1902 Education Act, responsibility for schools in the county passed to Derbyshire County Council. In 1904 Widdows was appointed architect to the Council's Education Committee. In 1910 he was appointed Chief Architect to the Council, although schools remained his predominant concern. By the time he retired in 1936, he had designed some sixty elementary and seventeen secondary schools.
Widdows was at the forefront of the movement to build schools in which high standards of hygiene were as important as educational provision following 1907, when the Board of Health brought in legislation which required schools to become subject to regular medical inspections. Widdows worked with his Medical Officer, Sidney Barwise, and two deputy architects, C. A. Edeson and T. Walker, to develop a series of innovative designs introducing high levels of natural daylight and effective cross ventilation in schools. His designs, in a neo-vernacular style, were characterised by open verandah-style corridors linking classrooms with generous full-height windows. His distinctive and influential plan forms were based on a linear module which could be arranged in different configurations to suit the size of school required and the shape of the available site. This was a significant move away from the standard Board School plan introduced by E. R. Robson, with its central assembly hall and classrooms to three sides.
Widdows' pre-1914 elementary schools can be broadly divided into four plan types. The earliest was the 'marching corridor' type, with corridors wide enough for boys to perform drill. The concern over the physical fitness of schoolchildren emanated from the Boer War of 1899-1902, when over a third of the men called up to fight were found to be physically unfit. Only five schools were built to this experimental and rather expensive plan. The second type was more standardised. It was linear in form, with a larger classroom at each end, and often a freestanding hall with linking corridor to the rear. The earliest examples of this type date from around 1910-11. 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, with open verandah corridors, north lights and south dormer windows. His secondary schools were larger and had a greater variety of rooms, with sizeable assembly halls, laboratories and art rooms as well as classrooms. These larger ensembles tend to have a greater architectural presence resulting from their size and the complexity of their plan forms.
The advances Widdows made in school planning were recognised by his contemporaries. In an article on provincial school building in 1913, The Builder stated that his work 'constitutes a revolution in the planning and arrangement of school buildings... a real advance which places English school architecture without a rival in any European country or the United States.'
Glebe Junior School was designed in 1911 by G Widdows. It is of banded red and blue brick with gauged brick and stone dressings, steeply pitched hipped plain tile roofs with large brick ridge ventilators. The school is single storey with a butterfly plan; the classroom ranges branching off from the central hall. A projecting porch to the north between the wings is of banded stone and red brick and has a central deeply splayed stone doorcase with a segmental arch of radiating voussoirs, decorated to the lower edge with ballflowers. Double glazed doors below and embattled parapets over are inscribed 'Infants School'. To either side there are three-light windows with chamfered stone sills and dentilled brick hoodmoulds. The south elevation has a three-bay gabled central hall with two stepped buttresses rising into the gable decorated with stone tile motifs, flanking the central openings. The ground floor has three segmental headed double doors and central segment headed 4-light windows flanked by flat two-light windows above. There is a continuous tile hoodmould over the upper windows and diamond motif inthe gable. A central octagonal cupola to the roof has a leaded base, arcaded sides and domed leaded roof with a weathervane. Four bay angled wings to either side have two furthest bays below a wide gable with similar diamond motifs. Two inner bays have three-light timber mullion and transomed windows below hipped roof dormers with three-light windows. Two outer bays have three-light mullion and double transomed windows below dentilled brick hoodmoulds. The rear elevation and other wings are in a similar style. 20th century additions between the wings are of no special interest.
The interior is very plain except the staff room which has a tiled fireplace.
ASSESSMENT
The special interest of Glebe Junior School is reflected by its current listing in Grade II and is not in question. However, the existing list description of the school dates the building to 1900. English Heritage's thematic survey of the surviving schools designed by George Widdows has resulted in extensive research being undertaken. This has broadened our knowledge of this building type and also allowed us to assemble a more accurate record of how and when these buildings have developed.
Research has confirmed that the school dates from 1911 and not 1900 as originally believed. It is therefore recommended that the list description be amended to reflect the correct date of construction. The description has also been revised to include additional historical information so that it is consisitent with the list descriptions of the other schools in this survey. (1)
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