BALLOUGRY PRIMARY SCHOOL

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached multi-bay single-storey rendered school building incorporating two-storey former school-master's house to northeast, built c.1868 to the designs of Richard Williamson. Rectangular on plan facing northwest with central projection and gabled end bays. Central entrance wing to front with flat-roofed single-storey extension to rear, built c.1970. Set back from the road on a corner site to the east of Mullennan Road and to the north of Ballougry Road.

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded black clay ridge tiles, central timber louvred ventilation lantern with lead lined roof. Four polychromatic brick chimney stacks with octagonal clay pots (rebuilt to former school house). Moulded cast-iron guttering on iron drive-through brackets (half-round to rear) and cast-iron downpipes. Timber bargeboards with moulded brackets to all gables. Painted rough-cast rendered walling with smooth rendered projecting plinth course and painted rusticated masonry quoins. Square-headed window openings with painted masonry sills and timber sash windows having 2/2 panes horizontally-glazed with margin lights and slender ogee horns.

Front elevation faces NW and is ten windows wide with advanced gable to either end, central gabled projection and two-storey former school-master's block to the northeast. The gabled end bay to the north is part of the two-storey house with a lean-to entrance porch to the re-entrant angle. The house has round-arched window openings with painted moulded surrounds to the heads and replacement horizontally-glazed 2/2 timber sliding sash windows. The entrance porch has a vertically-sheeted timber door with integral glazed panel. Behind the entrance porch is an oculus with keystoned surround and four-light window. The southwest gabled bay has a pair of round-headed window openings to ground floor level (as above) with an oculus to the gable (as per house). Central gabled projection flanked by three square-headed window openings with original (or early twentieth-century) timber sash windows having 2/2 panes horizontally-glazed with margin lights, ogee horns and some historic glass. The central gabled projection has two sliding sash windows (as above) to each side and to the front, with a square-headed door opening to the right cheek with replacement sheeted timber door instead of one window.

Gabled northeast side elevation to former school-master's house has painted ruled-and-lined rendered walls with a pair of round-headed window openings having smooth rendered surround and timber sash windows with 2/2 panes horizontally-glazed to the first floor, centred on gable.

Rear elevation faces southeast and has a central single-storey flat-roofed modern entrance bay connecting the school building to a flat-roofed two-storey extension, built c.1970 with hardwood glazed and panelled doors, of no historic interest. The north end of the building has a two-storey gabled rear return with a further single-storey gabled projection. Adjacent to the central entrance bay is a square-headed window opening with a multi-pane steel window.

Southwest side elevation has a flat-roofed entrance porch to the right with a landscape window opening to the left having steel casement window, divided into three. Toothed quoins to left, plain heads and cills.

Setting:
Located on a corner site at the junction of Mullennan Road and Ballougry Road with bitmac play area, bitmac parking area to the south and front lawns enclosed by rubblestone walls with stacked coping. The house to the northeast side of the school building has a small rear yard enclosed by tall rubblestone walls and a single pedestrian iron gate to the front garden hung on rubblestone piers. Further iron pedestrian gate to the front wall of the school (now disused).

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Rough-cast render
Windows Timber sliding sash (unless otherwise noted)

Historical information

Ballougry Primary School, a single-storey Victorian schoolhouse possessing projecting gable-ends, a central porch and a two-storey former teacher’s residence, was constructed in 1868. The second edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1853) and contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1857) records that prior to the construction of the schoolhouse the current plot of land was the site of a house that was owned by Robert Moore (Londonderry’s Town Clerk and former resident of Mullennan House – HB01/12/014A) and leased to a Mr. John McNutt (UTD).

The schoolhouse was constructed by 1868 when it was first recorded in the Annual Revisions. Curl records that the school was designed by Richard Williamson (d. 1874), Londonderry’s County Surveyor and official surveyor to The Honourable The Irish Society. Upon arriving in Derry Williamson entered into partnership with Thomas Turner. The Dictionary of Irish Architects notes that Turner predominantly carried out work for the firm in Belfast and Glasgow whilst ‘Williamson was responsible for most of the works which were executed by the partnership in Co. Derry.’ In the late-1860s Williamson designed a number of schoolhouses for The Irish Society which included The Irish Society School on Beresford Place, Coleraine (1866-69),HB03.17.010, Culmore Primary School (1867), HB01.27.006 and Ballougry Primary School (Curl, p. 414; DIA).

The school was constructed to the east side of the McNutt’s dwelling (which continued to stand on the site until 1901 when it was demolished). Calley described Williamson’s design as a ‘long single-storey rendered school with quoins and projecting gable-ends … enclosed by a low schist wall.’ The Annual Revisions noted that Ballougry School was administered by the National School System and was valued at £8 upon its completion in 1868. The schoolhouse was first depicted on the third edition Ordnance Survey map (c. 1904) which recorded the building along its current layout but noted that it did not possess its current central porch. The porch was added to the building between 1904 and c. 1925 when it was first depicted on the fourth edition map. Curl states that the schoolhouse underwent extensive repairs in the aftermath of the Second World War and continued to be administered by The Honourable The Irish Society until 1956. In that year the school was transferred to the Londonderry County Education Committee and increased in value to £120 under the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57). By the end of the Second Revaluation (1956-72) the value of the school had been further raised to £256 (Curl).

Ballougry Primary School was listed in 1979. The NIEA HB Records note that the schoolhouse underwent a renovation in c. 2003 that included the restoration of its roof, windows and doors and the reconstruction of one of its original chimney stacks. In c. 2008 a further renovation of the building was carried out which aimed at the modernisation of the school and the provision of amenities such as a new office, cloak area and staff room. At the time of the Second Survey the building has continued to be utilised as a public elementary school for almost 150 years (NIEA HB Records; Ballougry Primary School website).

References

Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/5/20/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1853)
2. PRONI OS/6/5/20/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1904)
3. PRONI OS/6/5/20/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1924-25)
4. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/16A – Griffith’s Valuation (1857)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/32/10A-10G – Annual Revisions (1860-1929)
6. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/9 – First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936-57)
7. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/22 – Second General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1956-72)
8. Ulster Town Directories (1877-1943)
9. Census of Ireland (1901; 1911)
10. First Survey Record – HB01/12/012 (1972)
11. NIEA HB Records – HB01/12/012

Secondary Sources
1. Calley, D., ‘City of Derry: An historical gazetteer to the buildings of Londonderry’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 2013 (includes 1899 Valuation Map).
2. Curl, J. S., ‘The Londonderry Plantation 1609-1914’ Sussex, Phillimore & Co. Ltd., 1986.
3. Curl, J. S., ‘The Honourable The Irish Society and the Plantation of Ulster: 1608-2000’ Sussex: Phillimore & Co. Ltd., 2000.
4. Rowan, A. J., ‘The Buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ London: Yale University Press, 2003.

Online Resources
1. Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie/

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
U. Historic Associations
V. Authorship
W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

Detached multi-bay single-storey rendered school building and attached two-storey former school-master's house, built c.1868 to the designs of Richard Williamson on the junction between Mullennan and Ballougry Hill Road. Well-proportioned symmetrical mid-Victorian building of modest scale characterised by gabled projections, painted toothed quoins, ocular windows, leaded lantern and polychromatic brick chimney stacks. The original plan form survives and much of its internal and external detailing remains intact, making this an important example of a rural school within Northern Ireland; it has retained its original use. A single storey gabled extension, carefully stitched in to the centre of the main facade, is respectful and a flat roofed plainer abutment to the rear that connects the original building to the current school entrance is subservient to the historic structure. The schoolhouse is of social importance to the local community and it has significant historical associations, as one of three schools designed by the architect for The Irish Society. Slightly elevated, with mature trees and lawn to front, the original school grounds are bound by rubble schist stone walling, which add further interest and enhance the quality of its setting.