Save Old Pennar School - getting the building listed (Part 4)

Apologies for the lull in posts, but other things have cropped up.

As part of the the request for listing a building you are also  asked to give the historical background to the building. 

For Old Pennar School, there is information in files in The National Archives and at Pembrokeshire Archives, as well as some old newspaper reports and documents in private hands.



Files in The National Archives include ED 21/67383, an extract of which is reproduced, courtesy of TNA. This is a school inspector's report from 1938, and is interesting as it mentions how some of the classrooms were arranged.

In the Pembrokeshire Archives are files that tell us what the school was like initially. 

Details of specification and cost. This shows that the school initially comprised three classrooms.

Mixed Girls School Room:

 50 ft x 20 ft x 26 ft high

20ft x 15 ft x 20 ft high

Infants classroom

50ft x 20ft x 26ft high

The school was remodelled in 1894 to provide an extra infants classroom. Cost was £270.

30ft x 18ft x 16ft high (Wall Plate 12 ft)

In 1897 the school accommodated 123 Girls and 193 Infants.

The school was again enlarged in 1901, bringing it up to its present form.

Mixed Girls School Room:

 51 ft x 20 ft x 20 ft high

46ft x 20 ft x 20 ft high

20ft x 20 ft x 20 ft high

Infants classroom

33 ft x 24 ft x 20 ft

22 ft x 24 ft x 20 ft

30 ft x 19 ft x 18 ft

The extract below from my submission to CADW for listing, explains (in part) the relationship between the bombing of the Oil Tanks (In August 1940) and Old Pennar School:

I shall give you a few more extracts in my next post.

Old Pennar School - Emergency Access

Application Reference: 14/1098/PA 

This post is about the Swept Path Analysis Dennis Sabre Fire Engine (LWB) for Old Pennar School.

The actual document can be downloaded from here:

The diagram is described as a block plan on the portal, but as such it is unsuitable as it does not cover the whole site and leaves out Plots 6 to 15 - the most important and visually objectionable.

A low res copy of the plan is below.

To me, the layman, it would appear that access is severely restricted. What do you think?

Old Pennar School and the Great Oil Tanks Fire

19 August 1940 was a day that will feature prominently in any history of Pembroke Dock. It was when the clear blue sky of a summer's day was turned black and the Second World War made the first of many impressions on PD.

The story of the oil tanks fire has been told many times and can be read about in more detail on these links:

Phil Carradice tells the story of the bombing of the Oil Tank in Pennar. .....

......and here.

Photographs and more from the Western Telegraph.

The Old School Pennar played a significant role in the drama, as related by Vernon Scott in his book "In Harms Way":

The Photograph below shows the view looking east down Military Road from the site of the Oil Tanks after the cataclysmic Oil Tank Fire in August 1940. 

Does Old Pennar School, a refuge for the selfless firemen that fought the inferno, now face its own cataclysm?

See the caption below

The western end of the Barrack Hill was crowded with locals watching the spectacle of
the oil fuelled blaze. Did the young girl go to Old Pennar School? What would she think now?

The two photographs above are courtesy of Margaret Longueville, who served as an ambulance driver in PD in the Summer of 1940.