Survey Data
Reg No
40401422
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Drumkerl National School
Original Use
School
Date
1885 - 1890
Coordinates
232177, 311100
Date Recorded
09/07/2012
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached four-bay single-storey school, built 1886, with lower gable-fronted porch to northern bay, and three graduated windows to south gable. Now disused. Pitched slate roof with clay ridge tiles, rendered brick chimneytack to north gable with chamfered coping, exposed timber rafters to eaves, remains of cast-iron rainwater goods. Roughcast render over rubble stone walls, smooth ruled-and-lined render to south gable. Chamfered stone plaque to porch gable with inscription ‘DRUMKERL / NATIONAL SCHOOL / 1886'. Window openings with stone sills, pair of vent openings to north gable flanking chimneystack. Six-over-six timber casement windows to west and east elevations with tilting upper section for ventilation having internal metal restrainers. Multiple pane fixed timber windows to south gable. Lath-and-plaster ceiling to interior, rendered walls with timber sheeted dado, timber window boards, suspended timber floor, cast-iron stove and flue to north end with metal guard rail, metal coat hooks in porch. Timber benches and teachers desk surviving. Rubble stone boundary wall. Rubble stone separating wall to rear yard straddled at end by single-storey rubble stone toilet structure, having single-pitched corrugated-iron roof and seperate male and female entrances on either side of separating wall.
Appraisal
A national school which closed in the 1950s and retaining many interior features that provide immediate insight into schooling in the period before modern-day educational reforms. The single-room interior demonstrates the austerity and frontal focus of primary education in the period, as well as the means of heating, natural lighting, and ventilation. The site retains its grounds with segregated yard and toilets, including the original toilet outbuilding. The school is set in a prominent roadside location and makes a strong contribution to the historic character of the surrounding area.