NHER 10778 (Building record) - Pennoyer's School

September 1951. Listed, Grade II.
Listing Description:
Built in 1401 as a chapel of the Guild of St James. In 1670 William Pennoger established a school room in the building. Only the walls and buttresses of the original building remain, and these have been re-roofed and incorporated into the late 19th century school. Flint rubble and stone dressings. Steep black glazed pantile roof with gabled ends. One storey. North side large two-centred arch window with stone mullions and on left (now enclosed in 19th century addition) a moulded two-centred arch doorway with fleurons in the arch. Diagonal buttresses at corners of west end. South side has two windows as on north side. Large red brick school building added in late 19th century on east side.
Information from (S1).

1982. Site visit.
According to (S2), this school was founded in 1670 inside St James' Guild Chapel of 1401. The original building is largely hidden by 19th century red brick extensions. What is visible on the exterior is the west ends of the south and west walls, each with two broad lancets with hoodmoulds on headstops, and a central mullion. The walls are of rough flint with some random brick. The top of the west gable has been rebuilt in brick. Angle buttress on southwest.
(S2) suggests the mullions are of 1670 but they could be Victorian - the two north windows have certainly been restored. Style of windows unusual for 1401, but headstops fit this date - did the windows originally have tracery?
Still in use as a school.
E. Rose (NAU), 29 September 1982.

The school eventually closed in 1988.
Information from (S3).
A. Cattermole (NLA), 13 May 2008.

A timber framed cottage within the purlieus was demolished 1975 to extend the playground.
See NARG survey in file; nothing really datable on photographs but an angle-mullioned window is mentioned which suggests 16th or early 17th century.

See report by S. Heywood (NCC) in file which concludes that the windows did have tracery and that there was only one cell, no chancel, possibly used as a hall as well.
Roman roofing tile in wall.
Chapel was moved here from parish church.
E. Rose (NLA), 1 August 1997.

July 2001.
Buildings were disused and derelict.
Only points to add to S. Heywood's report are that the west door has a bowtell moulded hoodmould and there are medieval brick putlog holes.
E. Rose (NLA), 24 July 2001.

Local member states that the chapel bell was taken to Leverett House, Harvard, USA when a Belfry was demolished. However, this may in fact only have been the Victorian school bell. [1]
E. Rose (NLA), 18 December 2001.

March 2007. Visit.
No change, still derelict, but information boards erected and unofficial public access is possible.
E. Rose (NLA), 29 March 2007.

October 2007.
This Grade II-listed building has the twin attractions of a late-19th century red-brick village school and, incorporated within it, the walls and buttresses of a 1401 chapel, used as a school-room from 1670. It attracted major interest when it featured in the BBC's Restoration Village in 2006. The school closed in the 1990s and the building has remained empty since then. Local residents value it highly and want to use it as their community hall, but they lack the resources necessary to conserve and bring it back into use, so its future remains uncertain.
Victorian Society Endangered Buildings, 2007.

September 2008.
The building is intended to be restored for use as a Village Centre for heritage, education, business and social purposes. Work is due to start in January 2009 and it is planned to open the centre a year later.
The school in fact closed in 1988 (not in the 1990s as suggested above). For further details of the restoration project see (S3-5).
Information from (S6).
A. Cattermole (NLA), 15 September 2008.

February 2009-April 2010. Watching Brief.
No evidence was recovered that was contemporary with the construction and early use of the Guild Chapel and within the area of the chapel the floor foundations observed were a mix of post-medieval and modern material, which may have derived from previous works and alterations to the school. The reduction of floor levels indicated that part of the southern extension of the school has reused material from the eastern wall of the chapel. In the north-west area of the site a linear spread of mortar was observed which could be the4 base of a robbed out wall foundation from a former extension to the chapel pre-dating the later 19th century buildings.
See report (S7) for further details.
An archive associated with this work has been deposited with Norwich Castle Museum (NWHCM : 2023.102).
S. Howard (HES), 16 February 2011. Amended by P. Watkins (HES), 12 July 2023.