Survey Data
Reg No
40403719
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Previous Name
Ballynarry National School
Original Use
School
In Use As
Garage
Date
1830 - 1835
Coordinates
243213, 288036
Date Recorded
08/10/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached two-bay two-storey former national school, built 1832, with external steps to upper level. Now in use as workshop. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, concrete barge coping, and banded chimneystacks to gable ends. Squared stone eaves course carried around gable elevations as string course. Some surviving cast-iron rainwater goods. Lime-washed uncoursed random rubble walls. Altered windows to south elevation having eight-pane fixed timber top sash and concrete block infill to bottom section, all having tooled limestone sills. One fixed-pane window to north elevation. Recent steel security doors to ground floor. Sheeted timber door to first floor of north elevation approached by external limestone steps on east and north sides bounded by uncoursed rubble limestone wall with undressed coping stones forming part of churchyard boundary wall. Abutting church graveyard to north and bounded by squared rubble walls with dressed limestone piers.
Appraisal
Built in 1832 along with the adjacent church and parochial house on land donated by the Story Estate, this building housed one of the earliest national schools in the country. The building's exterior retains many original features notably the slate roof, external staircase, lime-washed finish, and distinctive chimneystacks, all contributing to a structure of historic character. The unusually-proportioned and positioned windows, though partly blocked up, are authentic features of a largely unchanged early national school and further contribute to the simple character of this building. An excellent example of local nineteenth century architecture, the former school remains an essential element of the social history and heritage of the local community.