The School House (Vine Cottage) is situated at the west end of Main Street, opposite the church gate.. Although, it is not a listed building, and now not a very attractive looking property, this house played a very important part in the village as it was the family home from 1921 of all the headteachers at Woodnewton Primary School.
Along with many other cottages in the village, this property was owned by Mr Henry Brassey of Apethorpe Estate and was tenanted. However, in 1921 Henry Brassey donated the cottage and the land to the parish church of St Mary’s and set up a Charity Trust with the Incumbent and two Churchwardens as the Trustees. Until the school closed down in 1990, the School House had been the home to nine headteachers, the last one being Pamela Darvill, who remained in the cottage after her retirement.
As can be seen from this photograph, the School House was a stone thatched single storey with attic and 2-window range property. The central doorway led into a small inner hall and then left into a room. The second room was reached via another inner hall from which the staircase led to the two upper rooms. An outhouse attached to the west end gable wall also had a thatched roof which too had to be removed.
In 1949, there was a fire in the thatch and the roof had to be completely removed and the walls had to be rebuilt and raised for a replacement asbestos roof to be fitted. A simple lean-to structure was added to the back of the cottage and turned into a kitchen, with a bathroom and porch leading to a back door on the side wall.
In 1994, a strip of land on the east side of the property was sold in order that a new house could be built in between the ‘now’ closed school building and the School House.
2023