Bacup School (Architectural Competition)

Assessor          Ernest Woodhouse FRIBA
1st premium     Butterworth and Duncan
2nd premium    A Greenwood
3rd premium     A Brocklehurst
Others        Sykes and Evans, Smith and Cross, Holt and Addshead, Hitchin and Prichard

Messrs. Smith and Cross, of Rochdale, submitted a carefully worked out design, and so they must have run the successful plans rather closely. The site is excavated so as a to form two excellent and level playgrounds, with a difference of nearly 12 feet in the levels, and they are as large as the site will allow. The classrooms are grouped round four sides of the assembly hall, and there are three separate entrances. The boys' entrance is necessarily on the lower level, with a stair case to the classroom level. This, however, precludes effectual supervision, though the arrangement affords a clever compromise in dealing with the. difficulties of the site. A classroom seating 72 makes a serious defect in the provisions of this clever scheme.

Reference    British Architect 25 April 1907
Reference    Building News 29 May 1908 page 774