The Ranmoor Council School

 

The Ranmoor Council School

A few days after my walk from Grenoside to Chapeltown, to investigate the geology and historic buildings in this part of Sheffield, my next day out was to continue my investigation of the Sheffield Board Schools, which I had started 7 months earlier in Walkley. 

 

Sheffield Board Schools on the south side of the city

I had so far visited 38 schools all around Sheffield, plus the central schools set around Leopold Street, which were all relatively easy to get to once I had arrived in Sheffield on the bus from Treeton; however, the 8 remaining schools that I had planned to visit before the end of the year are on the periphery of Sheffield. 

 

The route of my walk

Taking advantage of a good weather forecast on a Sunday, I decided to catch a No. 120 bus to Ranmoor, where I would have a quick look at the Ranmoor Council School, before heading up to the former Fulwood Board School and then walk back down the Porter Valley to Endcliffe Park – where I knew that I would encounter some interesting geology. 

 

The geology around Ranmoor and Fulwood

Alighting from the bus at the Fulwood Road/Tom Lane stop, I discovered that the former Ranmoor Council School, now the Nether Green Junior School, faces north and that the bright sunshine made it difficult to get a good photograph of its striking Flemish gables, towers and roof lines. 

 

The front elevation of the Ranmoor Council School

The Grade II Listed school was built in 1904 to a design by the architects Holmes and Watson, with the latter being responsible for the extension in 1909. It is the fifth school that I had seen by them and, as with those at Western Road and Carterknowle Road, it is in the Arts and Crafts style. Although lacking the architectural extravagance of the earlier schools by CJ Innocent, I think that it is one of the most attractive Sheffield Board Schools. 

 

A view along the front elevation

 

The masonry is surprisingly blackened, given that it is sited in an exclusive residential area to the south-west of Sheffield and therefore downwind of industrial pollution, for which Sheffield was notorious from the early 1800s to the 1950s.

 

Relatively clean Crawshaw Sandstone on the east elevation

It is one of the few schools where the stone used is recorded as Bole Hill stone from the Crookes/Walkley area, which is the Crawshaw Sandstone that I have got to know well during my exploration of the board schools. In the parts that are not so dirty, the uniform buff colour and the well bedded characteristics of the sandstone, which was laid in thin courses, can be clearly seen. 

 

An inscribed lintel made of Matlock stone

 

For the dressings, pink Matlock stone from the Ashover Grit is used, which is a stone that seems to have been favoured by Holmes and Watson, as it is also extensively used at their schools at Pomona Street and Western Road.

 

A detail carved in Matlock stone