Elmslie School was a

private Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

girls' school in the English seaside resort of

Blackpool Blackpool is a seaside resort in Lancashire, England. Located on the North West England, northwest coast of England, it is the main settlement within the Borough of Blackpool, borough also called Blackpool. The town is by the Irish Sea, betw ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancashi ...

, England, from 1918 to 2000. The school was established in a former house called the Elms, and later expanded into other buildings on the site. The Elms has been designated a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

History

The Elms was originally the family home of William and Sarah Powell, built in 1896 to a design by T. P. Worthington. Elmslie School was founded in 1918 by sisters Elizabeth, Polly and Peggie Brodie. The school, called Ellerslie School, which occupied the former home of the Powell family, had just 11 pupils to start with; Elizabeth Brodie was the first headmistress. She remained headmistress until 1952. The school moved to the Elms in 1922 and changed its name to Elmslie Girls' School. In 1941, the school became a day school and by 1945 had 353 pupils.Cowie, p. 130 The

Diocese of Blackburn The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created on 12 November 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool and Burnley, the cities of Lancast ...

's Board of Finance ran the school from 1948. In 1987 the school became an associated Woodard School. Elmslie closed in 2000. On 15 March 1995 English Heritage designated the Elms a Grade II listed building.

Architecture

The Elms is a two-storey house built on an L-shaped plan, of red brick, with a

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

front

façade A façade () (also written facade) is generally the front part or exterior of a building. It is a Loanword, loan word from the French language, French (), which means 'frontage' or 'face'. In architecture, the façade of a building is often t ...

. There are three

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

s at the front, the left-hand of which is

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

d. Both the left and right bays have small

turret Turret may refer to: * Turret (architecture), a small tower that projects above the wall of a building * Gun turret, a mechanism of a projectile-firing weapon * Objective turret, an indexable holder of multiple lenses in an optical microscope * Mi ...

s on either side of the upper windows; the left turrets are topped with

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

s, the right with

crenellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

caps. The central front entrance has a

porch A porch (from Old French ''porche'', from Latin ''porticus'' "colonnade", from ''porta'' "passage") is a room or gallery located in front of an entrance of a building. A porch is placed in front of the facade of a building it commands, and form ...

with

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...

columns. Internally, many of the building's original fittings are intact. During the building's use as a school the following additions were made to the site: gymnasium and assembly hall (1938), more classrooms in the Fisher block (1952), a chapel (1959) and VI Form Centre and music rooms (1988).Cowie, pp. 130-31

References

{{Blackpool buildings Defunct schools in Blackpool Grade II listed buildings in Lancashire Educational institutions established in 1918 1918 establishments in England Educational institutions disestablished in 2000 2000 disestablishments in England

History

Architecture

See also

References