Serpentine Bridge School

Also known as the Old Bridge School, this building was constructed in 1902 and was the third to be built on this site. 

Historical information

Newspaper articles from the time tell us that the first school, built in 1858, was closed for several years due to the lack of a schoolmaster. The buildings became dilapidated, and in 1889 a new schoolroom and teacher’s house were built. The third iteration, which you see here, was built in 1902.

The schoolroom was designed by Public Works Department architect, WB Hardwick, and the contractor was JG Braunsdorf. The original plans for the school building indicate that the design allowed for future extensions, as the fourth wall is corrugated iron and not brick. However, these extensions were never carried out, and the fourth ‘temporary’ wall remains.

In 1954, the Serpentine Bridge School closed after being replaced by a new school at the Serpentine townsite. All the buildings, except the original 1902 room, were either relocated to the new school or removed.

 

Physical description

The original building is a single-room brick building with a rendered string course on three sides, with a corrugated iron gable roof and verandah under the pitch of the main roof. The north wall of the building is timber-framed and clad in corrugated iron. Brickwork at the north ends of the east and west walls is toothed, as if to allow for future extension to the building.

Present day

This building is a rare example of the standard one-room school buildings built by the Public Works Department. Its historic and social significance lies in having been a place where children received an education, and members of the community interacted, for 150 years. The building is currently leased from the Shire by the Serpentine Historical Society and is furnished to replicate a school from the early 1900s.

The Jackson Bay Fig that shades the building was planted the same year the school was built and offered generations of schoolchildren shade and excellent climbing prospects. Today, however, we ask you give this elderly resident a chance to flourish in our modern world – please be gentle, and don’t climb it.

Port Jackson Fig

Port Jackson Fig (Ficus rubiginosa)

Height: 14.5m

Circumference: 4.8m

Canopy Spread: 20m x 23.5m

Shading the old Serpentine Bridge School, this Port Jackson Fig was first planted in 1902 when the third – and longest lasting – iteration of the school was built. A former student, Mrs G Coleman, remembered climbing the tree as a girl (1922-1931), when it was considered ‘fairly large’.

 

Further reading and references