Wolverhampton's Locally Listed Buildings

St. Stephen's Church of England School

Woden Road, Wednesfield

Listing:  Opened 1898 with a second block for infants built 1907.  Good example of a school built in the transition from Board school architecture to the more modern 'pavilion' style pioneered by local authority architects.  Local landmark building providing a context for nearby contemporary terraced housing in heavily redeveloped area.

Comment:  The secondary and infants schools together form an amazingly long block stretching down Woden Road.  The secondary school seems to have been designed to a rather high standard with plenty of details in the brickwork, a good deal of terra cotta and some good railings.  It must have been one of the last throws of the Wednesfield School Board.  The infants' school is slightly less elaborated.

The plainer style of the Infants' school but still with good terra cotta features 
and nicely styled railings.

In 2004 the city council proposed to demolish part of the infants' school, which they had just listed.  This society sent them a severe letter drawing their attention to this anomaly.  For one reason or another the proposal now seems to have been withdrawn.