Survey Data
Reg No
14402509
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social, Technical
Original Use
School
In Use As
House
Date
1850 - 1870
Coordinates
282947, 268306
Date Recorded
27/01/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Semi-detached four-bay single-storey infant school, c.1850, now in use as a private residence. Constructed of rendered limestone. Original timber sash windows and timber door. Hipped natural slate roofs with clay ridge tiles, projecting carved limestone eaves course and cast-iron rainwater goods. Plain entrance to north gable surmounted by plaque dated 1856. Adjoined on the south by a three-bay single-storey teacher’s house with hipped roof of natural slate roof and original sash windows. Dressed stone surrounds to windows and door openings. This building has a centrally located brick chimney stack. Another possible teacher's house, located to the north, is of similar appearance but without a chimneystack. A three-bay single-storey building to the north of the school with timber sash windows and a hipped natural slate roof is now used as an outbuilding. All four buildings are arranged around the entrance gates to Ardbraccan Church creating a courtyard. A carved stone gate piers to Ardbraccan Demense and a carved stone sty with cast-iron railings is found to the east.
Appraisal
Modest but very interesting collection of single-story buildings associated with an infants school. A plaque on the front of the school reads: 'Ardbraccan Infant School – Erected by a grant from the Westropp fund A.D. 1856 Joseph Henderson Singer Bishop of Meath The Rev John Brownlow Rector'. A subsequent plaque reads: 'Ardbraccan National School 1887'. These modest structures retain many original features such as the natural slate roof and the timber sash windows. An artistic quality is supplied by the dressed stone eaves courses and the high quality carved stone surrounds to the doors and windows of the teacher's houses. These structures from an interesting group arranged around a courtyard at the gates to Ardbraccan Church.