Blakesley Hall

Blakesley Hall (grid reference SP130861) (a grade II* listed building) is a Tudor hall on Blakesley Road in Yardley, Birmingham, England. It is one of the oldest buildings in Birmingham and is a typical example of Tudor architecture with the use of darkened timber and wattle-and-daub infill, with an external lime render which is painted white. The extensive use of close studding and herringbone patterns on all sides of the house make this a home that was designed to show the wealth and status of the owner. The house is also jettied on all sides. At the rear of the hall, built on the back of the chimney, is a brick kitchen block dating from circa 1650.

The hall is a timber-framed farmhouse built in 1590 (when Yardley was in Worcestershire) by Richard Smalbroke, a man of local importance to Yardley. His family farmed at the hall and had other buildings in the surrounding area which were lost over time. After 1685, the building passed into the hands of the Greswolde family and for the next 200 years became a tenant farm. In 1899, the hall was acquired by Henry Donne who renovated the dilapidated house before selling it to the Merry family, a local paint and varnish manufacturer, who were the last family to occupy the hall.

Blakesley

Coordinates: 52°08′47″N 1°05′09″W / 52.1465°N 1.0857°W / 52.1465; -1.0857

Blakesley is a village in the South Northamptonshire district of Northamptonshire, England. It is about 5 miles (8 km) west of Towcester. It is about 1,400 feet (430 m) above sea level according to Ordnance Survey. North-west of Blakesley, and now contiguous with it, is the hamlet of Quinbury End.

Demographics

According to the 2001 census it had a population of 492, (2010 estimate 529) 240 male, 252 female in 196 households.

Facilities

Blakesley has a pub named the Bartholomew Arms, a primary school and its own village shop with a post office. Blakesley Church of England Primary School in the village is in the catchment area of Sponne School in Towcester.

History

The name is believed to have come from an Old English place-name meaning "Blaecwulf's wood or clearing" (or "black wolf's wood/clearing"). Over time the name contracted to the present form. The name of the brook running through the village, the Black Ouse, was derived from the name of the village, and not the other way round as sometimes claimed.

Primary school

A primary school or elementary school is a school in which children receive primary or elementary education from the ages of about five to eleven, coming before secondary school and after preschool. It is the first stage of compulsory education in most parts of the world, and is normally available without charge, but may be offered in a fee-paying independent school. The term grade school is sometimes used in the US though this term may refer to both primary education and secondary education.

The term primary school is derived from the French école primaire, which was first used in 1802.

In the United States, "primary school" may refer to a school with grades Kindergarten through second grade (K-2). In these municipalities, the "elementary school" includes grade three through five. The terms first school or infant school may also be used in North America though these, strictly speaking, refer to different educational programs.

Hall Primary School

Hall Primary School was a rural primary school on the northern outskirts of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory. It was Canberra's oldest continually operating school, having opened in 1911, until its closure was announced on 13 December 2006, by the Education Minister, Andrew Barr as foreshadowed in the 2006-07 Australian Capital Territory budget.

Integrated into the school is the Laurie Copping Museum that recreates a school room from 1911. It was opened by the Governor-General in 2005.

The school was originally established in New South Wales and was the responsibility of the New South Wales government until 1913 when the ACT was created. The Commonwealth Government still pays the cost of interstate based Hall students by way of Commonwealth Grants Commission adjustments.

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Coordinates: 35°10′05″S 149°04′10″E / 35.16793°S 149.06931°E / -35.16793; 149.06931

Hall

In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers. Later, rooms were partitioned from it, and the space next to the front door became the entrance hall. Today, the (entrance) hall of a house is the space next to the front door or vestibule leading to the rooms directly and/or indirectly. Where the hall inside the front door of a house is elongated, it may be called a passage, corridor (from Spanish corredor used in El Escorial and 100 years later in Castle Howard) or hallway.

Other meanings

The term hall is often used to designate a British or Irish country house such as a hall house, or specifically a Wealden hall house, and manor houses.

In later medieval Europe, the main room of a castle or manor house was the great hall. In a medieval building, the hall was where the fire was kept. With time, its functions as dormitory, kitchen, parlour and so on were divided off to separate rooms or, in the case of the kitchen, a separate building.