Survey Data
Reg No
41307036
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social
Previous Name
Ballybay National School
Original Use
School
Date
1835 - 1880
Coordinates
271945, 320391
Date Recorded
29/09/2011
Date Updated
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Description
Detached seven-bay single-storey L-plan former Church of Ireland national school, built 1838, having gabled projecting end bays to front elevation. Extended and altered 1878, with lower two-bay portion to re-entrant angle at rear. Now in use as church hall. Gabled single-bay single-storey porch extension to centre of west elevation. Pitched natural slate roof with grey clayware ridge tiles. Timber bargeboards to gables facing to front and rear, with gable-braces incorporating trefoil detail and timber pinnacle finials, overhanging eaves with exposed joists, and replacement rainwater goods. Other gables have scalloped timber bargeboards. Roughcast rendered walls with smooth rendered plinth, date-stone to north-west projection inscribed 'Ballybay National School Enlarged 1879 Patron R.C. Leslie French D.L. Manager Rev. A.B.B. Young M.A. Principal M.D. Ranson'. Four-centred arch window opening to south-west projection, square-headed elsewhere, with rendered patent surrounds, render hood-mouldings, replacement uPVC windows, and painted sills. Square-headed door openings with rendered patent surrounds and replacement battened timber doors. Built on rising site at foot of hill on which stands Church of Ireland church.
Appraisal
This school is a simple structure that is enhanced by the inclusion of details such as decorative hood-mouldings and decorative bargeboards. The inscriptions attributing the schools construction to various notables documents the building's social and historical significance. In close proximity to Christ Church, the building forms part of an ecclesiastical and educational group, typical of its period and indeed of many of Ireland’s smaller towns.