2013 Sandford Award for Heritage Education

"This was my second visit to Great Cressingham Victorian School as I shadowed a school session five years ago in my role as Director. On that occasion and on my recent visit it was clear to me that the Victorian school programme the owner completely engages the attention and the imagination of the pupils (or scholars as they are referred to during the visit). The atmosphere is enhanced by the fact that the programme takes place in an authentic Victorian school and the owner and her helpers never come out of character. I myself was pressed into service as Miss Smart, Her Majesty's School's Inspector. The children were in costume and responded as instructed throughout the visit, despite the fact that they were exposed to a lot of alien ideas such as having to leave school at eleven and seek work, sometimes having to skip school to help the family income; writing with a slate pencil on a slate board; writing with ink and a dipped pen; and reciting improving Victorian aphorisms. Whilst the lesson proceeded, I looked through a large folder full of letters of appreciation, written by both pupils and teachers, and the response was overwhelmingly enthusiastic. One of the teachers said to me that the visit was one of the most important parts of the Victorian curriculum as the children remembered everything they had done on the day."

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English Heritage list School Building

The former Great Cressingham School is of special architectural and historical interest, and merits inclusion on the List at Grade II.

The former Great Cressingham School, built 1840, is relatively plain architecturally. It is built in the local vernacular style, but the octagonal brick chimneys pay homage to the favoured Tudor revival style of school architecture popular in the 1830s and 40s. The single-storey, one room structure (with a small kitchen extension added in the late C19 or early C20) is of historic interest as a rare surviving example of an early-C19 school.

The high degree of intactness both internally and externally has ensured that both its plan form and function remain clearly legible and is enhanced by the late-C19 to early-C20 addition of a porch and kitchen. Its current use as a Victorian School Museum compliments the building and its understanding perfectly.