Stoke Climsland Old School
RETROFIT Plan & Feasibility study
A retrofit plan for a community centre and Parish Archive housed in a mid 19th Century National School
Stoke Climsland Old School is a National School built in the early 1850s and became a Community Centre and Parish Archive in the late 1990s when a new primary school was built on the outskirts of the village.
With the challenges associated with energy costs and a changing climate, Stoke Climsland Old School Trustees asked us to help them develop a whole building retrofit plan - while respecting the historic significance of the building.
In 2024 we were commissioned to produce a Retrofit Plan and a Feasibility Study on making Stoke Climsand Old School energy efficient and sustainable for the future. Funded by Cornwall Council’s Good Growth Community Capacity Fund, we worked with the trustees to produce the first phase of a retrofit plan which included the Repair and Maintain of the existing fabric as well as looking at options for the future use of the building. The work built on the original Conservation Statement written by Parke Lees in 2008 and updated in 2013.
Community
Stoke Climsland Old School serves the Community as part of a network of social and civic centres in the Stoke Climsland Parish. The community centre offers amongst other services, a Library, Parish Archive and Kitchen with catering. The Kitchen is central to how the community centre is run and sets it apart from the other community provision in the village. The weekly community lunches are at the heart of the activities of the community centre.
A successful retrofit is not just about improving the fabric of a building and putting in new energy efficient services, but looks at enhancing the use of existing spaces, improving the external environment, which in turn benefits the building’s fabric and occupant’s health and well-being. One of the items that had been identified early on was the need to update the ventilation system to the kitchen. Air leakage in the whole building was a contributing factor to the feeling of cold in the spaces and by addressing both these issues we proposed an alternative vision for how the building could be used in the future.
The kitchen was inserted into the Old School Building in 1969 cutting the Boys Classroom in half. When addressing the ventilation to the kitchen area we proposed options for opening up the space and integrating a community kitchen into the community centre - so that the community could cook and eat together, while creating a warm and comfortable space that is more sympathetic to the original form of the building.
HERITAGE
PARISH ARCHIVE
The Stoke Climsland Parish Archive is a significant part of the community resource and in addition to the storage of historic records, provides a service that helps people research their links with the Old School. It runs educational events to better explain the history of the Old School building and its relationship with the wider parish.
Opening up this resource to the wider community by making it more accessible would provide opportunities for widening participation in the activities that occur in the building.
In the 1850s plan the Old School and Headmaster House had six different entrances, defining the routes through to the Girls Classroom the Boys Classroom and the Infants rooms. The headmasters house was separate, but had originally had a door directly into the school. As a school the logic to these entrances was clear, as a community centre the entrances are confused. To enhance the accessibility for all to the Community Centre and to enhance the significance of this heritage asset we proposed reconfiguring the access into the building and around the spaces.
When researching the history of the building, we found two versions of the original plans in the Kresen Kernow Archives. The first version showed the headmasters house and school building mirrored. The plans also had hand written notes and sketches showing the design decisions that were made while developing the original building. These drawings offer evidence as to how the building might be adapted to allow more legible routes around the building.
Original section and elevations of Stoke Climsland National School - from the collections at Kresen Kernow (Archive number SRP/69)
The project was funded by Cornwall Council’s Good Growth, Community Capacity Fund.
