Level 3 Building Recording for a Grade II listed post-war school.

Heritage Unlimited were engaged to provide a Level 3 Building Recording to satisfy a planning condition attached to an approval for works at St Crispin’s School in Wokingham, a grade II listed building.

A Level 3 investigation is an analytical record comprising an introductory description followed by a systematic account of the building’s origins, development, and use. The record includes an account of the evidence on which the analysis has been based, allowing the validity of the record to be re-examined in detail, along with all drawn and photographic records required to illustrate the building’s appearance and structure and to support an historical analysis (Historic England 2016, 26). St Crispin’s School was designed in 1949-50 by David Medd (and others) and built in 1951-3, the first development of the Hertfordshire system built on Hills light steel frame. At Wokingham the Ministry of Education’s newly agreed 3 ft 4 in module replaced the less flexible 8 ft 3 in module used at Hertfordshire (Bullock 2002, 223). The building was listed for its special architectural or historic interest in 1993 after the considerable redevelopment of 1975. Much of the building’s interest is held in the main building phase of 1951-53. Architecturally the building was constructed in a modernist modular design using experimental techniques for multi-storey buildings at the time when The Lawn in Harlow was constructed as part of the New Town development.