The outside.

NOTE: THIS PAGE WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THE REPAIR WORK STARTED

The exterior of the Hall was quite badly deteriorated. The brickwork, while surprisingly good in some places has suffered from over a century of frost and erosion leaving significant damage that needs to be repaired. Notably, even the date stone in the chimmney has been eroded to the point where it's becoming difficult to read. This stone needed to be replaced. Any offers for the original in aid of the restoration fund?

Weathered and frosted brickwork at the North-West corner of the building.
In common with buildings of this date, there is no damp-proof course and walls are solid without an insulating air cavity. This could make the building susceptable to damp. The walls are 13 inches thick and made of six-hole perforated terracotta bricks so they are actually remarkably efficient in keeping heat in and damp out. Terracotta does have a nasty habit of softening off on the exposed side and it can be seen from this picture that some have softened off just a little too much for comfort!

This is the bottom of the main entrance door to the building. It's plain that the door is in an advanced state of decay and may need replacing completely.

This is a view of the date stone embedded in the chimmney. The fireplace at the bottom of this chimmney was the only source of heat for the building until a pair of gas fires were installed in the 1960s. This stone is seriously weathered and will need to be replaced. It has been suggested that the original date stone be auctioned off in aid of the restoration funds but it may not be possible to remove it in one piece.

It's not possible to see from this angle but the chimmney is also leaning slightly towards the roof. It's unclear at present if this is a recent problem or a "Feature" of the original build.

This window is on the South side of the building.
(The wire netting was installed recently to stop children breaking the windows when playing football in the playground. It didn't work very well, did it?)
The windows consist of a wooden two-pane lower light which opens inward on two brass hinges at the bottom. The inside has a baffled steel frame with side glazing to ensure that no rain or draught enters the building and whistles around the room soaking all inside. The glass is broken so plasic sheeting has been stuffed into the window at some time to keep the wind and water out. See the interior for a view of this type of window on the inside. The upper section of the window consists of panes of glass set into the opening with mortar and separated by steel "T" bars set into the mortar. The current state of repair of these widows is that the mortar has softened, the brass hinges have all sheared off and the glass is mostly broken. Remarkably the wooden frames are substantially intact.