Building record MDR13406 - Former Clay Cross Community School, Market Street, Clay Cross

The Clay Cross Company School was built to educate the children of those working for the Clay Cross Company. It was designed by H J Stevens of Derby, and was opened in 1855. After the 1870 Education Act, management passed to the local School Board and, following the 1902 Education Act, to Derbyshire County Council. The school, as illustrated in the Ladies Newspaper of 1854, was an Italianate design, with what appears from the drawing to be a central hall flanked by long wings to either side, entered by porches set in the corners between the forward projecting hall and the side wings. At the centre of the building is a tall clock and bell tower with a pyramidal roof. It appears, from Ordnance Survey maps from 1878 onwards, that the school was extended, enlarged and modified from the late 19th century into the first half of the 20th century, including a sequence of additions to the west elevation. The roof of the central hall also seems to have been raised by one stage of the bell tower to create a second floor, and the lancets shown in the 1854 print have been replaced with large mullioned windows to ground and first floors of the east gale. It also appears that the roofs of the north and south wings were raised and the east windows heightened and their form altered. The building, which is constructed of red brick with stone dressings to windows and quoins and with pitched slate roofs, is now an Adult Education Centre. (1)