Falmouth Grammar School granted listed status by Historic England

The former Grammar School in Tregenver Road, Falmouth is now , now an adult education centre.

Thousands of Falmouth children attended the school since it first opened on the site as Falmouth Boys Grammar School in autumn 1915.

In 1971 the grammar school became the lower school of the newly-expanded Falmouth School. It became an Adult Education Centre in 2003.

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History of Falmouth Grammar School

Confirming the decision on its Facebook page, The Save Our Falmouth group posted: "We are pleased to announce that we have received confirmation from Historic England that the Falmouth Gramm​ar School building is now listed as Grade II.

"This has been a long term project for Save our Falmouth with hours of work involved in making this happen. As a group we strongly support the long-term future of the town's historic buildings."

Unsuccessful applications to list the school were made in 1992 and 2001 but for the last couple of years the Save Our Falmouth group have been researching the history of the site with the view of trying to get it listed again.

Falmouth Grammar School students in 1968.

There was lots of research which was sent to Historic England to back the application, including:

• Historic, architectural and archaeological information along with many supporting files.

• A folder of photographs of the building, some of its former pupils and also of the documents held at the National Archives at Kew.

• Items to show the threat to the site; screenshots of the Ambos proposal and an extract from the CCC 'Estate Transformation Update'.

• Relevant extracts from the Falmouth Neighbourhood Plan

• A list of the ten books and online documents that were used to support the application.

Save our Falmouth liaised with others and were able to get the application supported by the Falmouth Town Council and the local MP Cherilyn Mackrory.

The final application was made on January 26 this year and on Friday they received notification that it had been successful.

Posting on its Facebook page the Save Our Falmouth Group said: "We are pleased to announce that we have received confirmation from Historic England that the Falmouth Gramm​ar School building is now listed as Grade II."

To be of special architectural interest a building must be of importance in its architectural design, decoration, craftsmanship or plan form, or be an exemplar of a particular building type or technique, in order to ensure that examples of such a type are preserved.

In its Reasons for Designation, Historic England said the former Falmouth Boys Grammar School and annexe are listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

• As a good representation of the educational buildings designed by Sampson Hill as the Council’s Education Committee Architect;
• For the use of Cornish granites and Delabole slate as a demonstration of local distinctiveness;
• The neo-Georgian design reflects the convention for school building in the period, and is presented well in the principal elevations;
• The historic plan form with its spine corridor, large assembly hall and symmetrical entrances can still be read, despite some alterations.

Historic interest:

• As a good example of a local authority-managed school of its period, following on from the schools designed by other Cornish architects such as Silvanus Trevail as a result of the 1870 Education Act.

The Falmouth Packet website was also used by Historic England to come to a decision on the building's status.