Ruskin Community High School as at 2006
Historic England
Ruskin Community High School is a coeducational comprehensive secondary school in Crewe, Cheshire, England, for pupils aged 11 to 16 years.[1] It was designated a Grade II listed building in 1999.[2]
The school was founded in 1902 as Crewe County Secondary School in rooms at the then Technical College in Flag Lane and moved to the new Ruskin Road building in 1909.[3] Designed by Harry Beswick, the County Architect for Chester, in the Georgian Revival style, it was partly funded by the local railway company.[4]
Following the 1944 Education Act the school was renamed Crewe County Grammar School. It remained coeducational until 1959, when a new girls’ grammar school was opened in Buchan Grove,[a]The Crewe County Grammar School for Girls became The Oaks Academy in 1978.[5] and the school was renamed Crewe County Grammar School for Boys.[6] In 1978 the grammar school was merged with Bedford Street Boys’ Secondary School to form Ruskin County High School,[3] and became a sports college.[7] Later renamed Ruskin Sports College, then Ruskin Sports and Languages College, it was redesignated as a specialist sports college in 2006.[6]
In January 2025 the school opened a new Performing Arts Studio.[8]
Architecture
Exterior
The three-storey building is constructed of red brick with terra cotta dressings. It has Welsh slate roofs with a square-domed octagonal cupola
Small dome on top of a roof or other high structure. and wind vane, and various coped stacks and air shafts. The projecting central entrance bay is defined by pilasters
Decorative architectural element used to give the appearance of a supporting column, to articulate an extent of wall. under a pedimentLow-pitched gable above a portico or façade., and has a moulded round arched doorcase with keystone, containing original half-glazed doors, sidelights and fanlight.[2]
Interior
Most rooms have a glazed brick dadoArchitectural term for the lower part of an internal wall, below the dado rail and above the skirting board. and 20th-century suspended ceilings. The assembly hall has a gallery on three sides, supported by cast-iron columns and brackets. It has a segmental-arched queen postStructural framework of timbers designed to bridge the space above a room and to provide support for a roof. roof with clerestoryUppermost range of windows in the wall of a church, or a row of windows above eye-level., round arched windows and doors with fanlights. The balcony has an ornate cast-iron balustrade.[2]
Notes
| a | The Crewe County Grammar School for Girls became The Oaks Academy in 1978.[5] |
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