The Highfield Special Council School

 

Entrances to the Manual and Cookery departments

The final stop on my day out in Sheffield, to further explore the Sheffield Board Schools at Heeley, Meersbrook and Abbeydale, was at the Highfield Special Council School, which I had seen a few months earlier from behind a locked gate from Sitwell Road, when exploring the area around the Sharrow Board School. 

 

The south end

 

On this occasion, while having another quick look at the adjacent Mount Pleasant Community Centre, I noticed a few youths disappear from view but, having seen them again next to the school when photographing the south end, I went to investigate further. 

 

The east elevation

Having found an entrance from the grounds of the community centre, I was able to take photographs of the elongated two storey building, which was built on a narrow plot of land on Sitwell Road that was purchased in 1903, just before the abolition of the Sheffield School Board. 

 

A view along the east elevation

 

The specific purpose of this was to build a school with three departments - a ground floor for 80 pupils with learning disabilities, with the upper floor used for manual subjects for boys and cookery for girls – presumably shared with other schools as had been the case at Heeley. 

 

The entrance for boys

The school was finally built in 1907 to a design by the architect Adam Watson, who had previously worked with Edward Holmes on the Tinsley Park Road, Pomona Street, Western Road and Carterknowle Road schools. 

 

The north end

The stone used for the walling is the usual uniformly buff coloured and well bedded Crawshaw Sandstone from Crookes, but the more massive sandstone for the dressings has a very distinct pink/red colour and is not Stoke Hall stone, which was typically used in the board schools. 

 

The entrance to Manual

This pinkish sandstone, which is not generally seen in Sheffield’s historic buildings was also used by Watson for the window dressings at Western Road and Pomona Street and was presumably a favoured material of his, although I have not determined the provenance of this stone. 

 

The entrance to Cookery

 

The school closed in 1986 and at the time of the writing of Building Schools for Sheffield in 2012, it was occupied as a youth centre but was disused at the time of my visit in August 2021. Except for part of the very large Heeley Board School, it is the only Sheffield Board School that is currently unoccupied and, although not listed, it does have architectural value and will hopefully soon find another user and be saved from demolition. 

 

A view along the west elevation