Winchburgh Primary School III (Former), Main Street, Winchburgh

Symmetrical. 6-bay, single storey and basement to rear (on falling ground), roughly T-plan school. Rendered; ashlar dressings. S ELEVATION: advanced double pitched gables with paired Venetian windows, slit window to gableheads; tall single windows breaking eaves to right and left returns; flanking single windows; paired breaking eaves windows to outer bays. E ELEVATION: advanced gable to right, 2 windows set close to wall edge; tall window breaking eaves to right return; 2-bay central piended entrance pavilion set in re-entrant angle, door to left, bipartite windows to right. Paired windows breaking eaves to penultimate bay right. Single window to outer right hand bay. N ELEVATION: projecting gabled end, 2 windows set close to wall edge. W ELEVATION: identical to E elevation with small, detached 20th century flat roof addition. Windows boarded up. Pitched roofs; grey slates; straight skews; coped and rendered stacks.

The Winchburgh schools, forming some of the earliest building stock of the town, are a landmark set on a prominent site at an important junction on Winchburgh's main street. The schools also contribute greatly to the early 20th streetscape, with particular correspondence to the miners row cottages built along Main Street which have been recognised as "the foremost of their kind in Lothian" (McWilliam). The original school was probably erected after the establishment of School Board of Scotland Act 1872. It was most likely built after 1885 as there is no mention of it in Groome's Gazetteer of that year; however there is reference to a public school in Groome's circa 1895 edition. The formation of the Oakbank Oil Company in 1901 led to a significant increase in the population of Winchburgh thus necessitating the extension of the local public school. In 1901, the population of Winchburgh was 426, but within a year the population had nearly doubled and more school accommodation was required. James Jerdan, a competent Edinburgh architect, was responsible for the design of the school extension which successfully repeated the multi-gabled arrangement of the original building, yet provided distinctive early 20th century detailing with rounded gables and tapered stacks. The extension to the school was said to provide enough accommodation for additional 250 pupils, bringing the total number of scholars to 500. At this time, a school master's house (also designed by Jerdan) was erected further along Main Street to the E. The population of Winchburgh continued to grow rapidly due to the success of the shale mining industry and another school was built by Jerdan & Son in 1907. There was also provision made for the school caretaker and thus a purpose-built cottage was erected on the school grounds. Unusual to the site was a cultivated garden tended by the pupils. As the shale mining industry waned in the second half of the 20th century, the population of Winchburgh also decreased. The earlier school was recently known as the Winchburgh Day Centre but now lies vacant (2003). (Historic Scotland)

January 2003: Local planners report that the school is now vacant, having become surplus to educational requirements. March 2003: External inspection reveals the building to be boarded up and secure. The external fabric appears to be in reasonable condition. September 2006: Buildings remain boarded up.

April 2008: External inspection finds the building remains boarded over. It appears basic maintenance is being undertaken.

August 2010: A news release from West Lothian Council notes that a major urban expansion for Winchburgh has been approved by local planners. Overall the expansion includes over 3000 homes and a series of multi-million expansion projects towards transport, infrastructure, education, transport, public art and town centre improvements.

9 March 2015: Local planners note an application to strip the interior of the former school buildings. In the longer term the buildings are intended for conversion to council housing.

14 April 2015: External inspection finds the building remains in much the same condition as seen previously.

4 June 2015: Local planners note consent is being sought for the conversion of the school buildings to 8 single bed council houses. This will involve the removal of the structures which link the various elements of the buildings.

27 September 2018: Full Planning Permission and Listed Building Consent for conversion of the school to form four dwellings with demolition of the rear-most building (senior building/ annex) are being sought ref: 0845/FUL/18 & 0860/LBC/18. Previous applications for conversion to form social housing (0331&2 /FUL/15) were conditionally approved in 2015. A subsequent application for change of use to business units/ offices was also conditionally approved in Dec 2016.

4 September 2023: Full Planning Permission (1208/FUL/20) for the erection of 6 houses, formation of new access and demolition of existing buildings is being sought(18/12/2020).

A member of the public advices the building currently remains untouched.