Survey Data
Reg No
11900903
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Artistic, Historical, Social
Original Use
School
Date
1850 - 1890
Coordinates
282243, 231792
Date Recorded
15/10/2002
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached four-bay two-storey former school, c.1870, with door opening to first floor to gable end to south approached by flight of steps. Now disused with openings blocked-up. Gable-ended roof with slate. Clay ridge tiles. Rendered chimney stacks. Rendered coping to gables. Iron rainwater goods. Roughcast walls. Painted. Square-headed window openings. Stone sills. Window fittings removed and boarded up. Square-headed door openings. Timber door to ground floor to east. Timber door to first floor to south approached by flight of stone steps having iron railings. Set perpendicular to road with gable end to south fronting on to road and front (east) elevation fronting onto church yard. Wall-mounted cast-iron post box, c.1890, to flight of steps with inscribed royal cipher.
Appraisal
Staplestown School (former) is a simple building, notable at present primarily for its impact on the streetscape and core of Staplestown Village. Funded by the local Catholic church and parish the school is of social interest having acted in the past as the educational centre for the locality - the school also forms a neat, compact group with the adjacent church (11900902/KD-09-20). Although disused, the building retains some early features including the slate roof, while the distribution of openings to the primary (east) front lends itself as an attractive feature when viewed from inside the church yard. Also of interest is the entrance to first floor level, which indicates that the school conformed to social/moral planning of the time whereby each gender was allocated a separate classroom and entrance. Also of historical and some artistic interest is the post box mounted into the wall of the steps, which acts as a reminder of the period when Ireland was part of the British Empire and which contains a raised royal cipher.