The old school house history and availability

The Old School House, Corby Glen  NG33

Does anyone have any more history around this set of properties in the village of Corby Glen or wants to add to its history by becoming a proud owner of the converted old school and part of the village life which boasts a post office, 3 shops, a surgery, a garage, a museum! and some renowned primary schools.  If so why not e-mail me on theoldschoolcg.

Corby Glen is on the edge of Rutland water between Stamford, Grantham (50-70mins from London's KingsCross) and Bourne and 40mins from Peterbrough; one of the few that still have a sheep fair (first week of October).   When it had a train before the world war it was called Corby but the post for Corby to the South West was incorrectly delivered to this village so they added the "Glen" to distinguish it.

The village has an active social calendar including a Sheep fair in October which is one of the oldest of its kind in the country.

The population  of Corby Glen increased to around 900 in around 1856 and the catholic church was some walk away, so one of the rich congregation donated the plot of land for the church, priory, school and headmistresses house.  Not being able to afford new materials they moved the Catholic church (Our Lady of Mount Carmel) stone by stone and re-built it in its current site where these original buildings are now part of the conservation area.  The stone of these buildings is the local Rutland stone cut in the "Lancaster" estate way with protrusions rather than a flat surface.  

The population subsequently decreased again until the planning on this village was lifted and new houses were built around the outskirts, rising in the past decade to a population over its peak of 900.  Unable to retain the congregation size with the decrease in population and then reduced catholic followers the catholic church shared a priest providing a service once a month until around 2013 when the lands were sold to the owner of the Priory and church itself was sold into private hands.  


The Priory and headmistresses houses were sold first with the associated land, the old school being retained as a village hall where it was rented for snooker, woodwork lessons (some of the local builders still remember training there) etc.  During this period maintenance was minimised with electric overhead heaters in the main hall and a large water tank in the old staff room.  Minimal tarmac grounds within the stone wall at the side were retained with the Old School.  

The first private owner purchased it in around 1996 and made part of the hall a garage/workshop accessed from the private drive, converted the kitchen to a domestic one and had a first floor added to the main hall.  It took him a decade to be able to do the conversion between finding employment, living in the staff room where they plumbed in bathroom facilities, with just the open fires until the early 2000's when the central heating was added along with the main bathroom and en-suite.  The first floor was put in around 2005 and a tie "just to make sure", although it has survived 2 local earthquakes without damage since.  It changed hands in 2009 since when it has had significant renovation work carried out making it a sound featured property.  The work was carried out by local builders including a carpenter to replace damaged panels and architraves, meter cupboard and boxing around pipes; gutter and masonry work to replace leak damage caused before it passed to private hands; upgrading plumbing and electricity and a labour of love exposing the beautifully grained oak trussets (beams), putting the Victorian iron and brass window latches and openers back into working order, sanding and treating the wooden floors to bring out their vivid colours while retaining the character of a century and a half of wear, renovating and protecting the kitchen stone fireplace surround and installing modern efficient multi-fuel stoves in the kitchen and lounge fire-places. Other than being insulated the large remaining attic that was above the original paneled roof remains available for further work.  In that period there were three tenancies, one by a builder with a sick wife needing a quite location for recover who had a multitude of cats and two local families, one where their house needed gutting an renovating and Grandparents looking to move to the village to be near their family.

The old school now offers solid thick walls and mullion windows with original victorian features, the large fireplaces, iron window latches and locks and the beautiful wooden arched beams that were part of the open hall roof with very large light kitchen and lounge areas. 

The following offers a pictorial guide to the old school;

Off a small cul-de-sac, within what were the church grounds within a fold of original stone buildings in Corby Glen with spacious rooms, nearly 18ft kitchen, 31ft of living space and the smallest bedroom 15ft.
		A sympathetically converted hall with towered entrance, walled garden - see below (front garden walls as seen in this picture with lime trees are the well maintained neighbour's garden) and original features including arched beams, garage with oak doors and spacious rooms comprising:
Entrance hall with large arched front door and foot-well, a cloakroom and stairs to large upper en-suite bedroom to the left, ahead to the kitchen and seen here from the lounge/dining room on the right.
		Master en-suite bedroom (was the staff room) with open fire place and large mullion windows, and original wood flooring.  Entrance through to first floor landing.  18ft x 15’6” or 5.5 x 4.7m
Farmhouse style and sized fitted Kitchen /Breakfast room (17’9” x 15ft or 5.4 x 4.6m) with large stone surround fireplace and multifuel heating stove, butlers sink with brass taps and original parquet flooring.
		Light large original main hall LOUNGE /DINING ROOM (31’5” x 20ft or 9.6 x 6m) with original solid parquet flooring, and large fireplace with ACR multi-fuel heating stove, door to single garage with oak glazed doors. The garage (door open thorough to garage in the picture on the left below) has the potential to be converted to a good size family room – currently used as a workshop come garage.  Left lounge as seen from garage. Below left seen from entrance with garage door at end opened.
		Left is the upper level landing with sitting area (with view) and arch beamed corridor to 3 further bedrooms and bathroom.
		The 3 bedrooms all have lower shuttered and roof windows with (now) exposed beam/trusses. Bedroom 2: (16' x 11' narrowing to 8'8") Bedroom 3: (16' x 10'9" narrowing to 8'4")   Bedroom 4: (17' x 8'5" narrowing into recess). Metric that's; Bedroom 2: (4.9 x 3.3, narrows to 2.6m) Bedroom 3: (4.8 x 3.2m, narrows to 2.5m) Bedroom 4: (5.2 x 2.5 m narrows).
		Large Bathroom is partially tiled includes separate white Bath and shower suites.   The Integral garage/workshop (single width, double length) with solid oak doors. The garage makes an ideal workspace, being single car width but double length with a door leading directly into the lounge, light from the external doors and side mullion window (i.e. the same as the double windows seen in this picture) and a pedestrian door to the walled garden (seen in this picture). The garage is accessed off coronation road along 10 meters of right of way drive to walled garden area - matted grass area for parking, turning and access to garage as required. Plans below (not to scale).
Contact theoldschoolcg@gmail.com