21 School Lane

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached asymmetrical one-and-a-half-storey stone former school, dated 1872, with full-height gabled front entrance porch. Located on a narrow lane to the north of Freehall Road on an elevated site. Gutted by fire c.1990, extensively renovated for use as a dwelling house c.2000, with lean-to sunroom added to the front elevation.

Steeply pitched natural slate roof with black clay roll-moulded ridge tiles, timber bargeboards and exposed timber rafter feet to timber sheeted overhanging eaves. Two dormer windows inserted to the rear pitch with catslide roof extending across rear projection and two skylights to the front pitch. Replacement cast-iron guttering and downpipes. Random coursed rock-faced basalt ashlar walling with tooled and squared sandstone quoins and cement pointing. Pointed-arched window openings with stop-chamfered tooled sandstone surrounds, sandstone sills, basalt relieving arches and replacement timber casement windows (unless otherwise stated).

Symmetrical front elevation is three windows wide with a central full-height gabled entrance porch abutted by lean-to sunroom to the southwest re-entrant angle. Circular sandstone datestone to the apex of entrance porch stating build date ‘DOWNHILL NATIONAL SCHOOL 1872’.

West gable abutted by lower single-bay gabled wing. Trefoil circular sandstone panel to the apex of principal block with voussoired basalt surround. Pointed-arched window opening to west gable of gabled section, detailed as per front elevation.

Rear elevation has an off-centre projection with a single square-headed window opening formed in chamfered tooled sandstone surround with replacement timber casement window.

East gable abutted by gable-ended single-bay entrance porch, added c.2000, built in rubble basalt with salvaged sandstone quoins and window and door surrounds. Replacement vertically-sheeted timber door to the south cheek with a square-headed window opening to the gable having a concrete lintel and bipartite timber casement window. To the apex of the principal east gable is a circular plaque, as per west elevation.

Setting
Located to the south of School Lane at a bend on the road with its rear elevation fronting onto the road. Lawns to the south and cobblelock to the remainder enclosed by rubble basalt walls with stacks coping and replacement stone piers to the west.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Replacement cast-iron
Walling Random coursed rock-faced basalt ashlar
Windows Replacement timber casement

Historical information

Downhill National School, dated 1872, was built by Sir Henry Hervey Bruce, third Baronet Downhill. In 1871 the third Baronet had bought out the Clothworkers’ property in the area, becoming the largest landowner and thereafter taking a particular interest in the development of Castlerock as well as rebuilding Downhill Castle after a serious fire. (Eccles)

An earlier building located to the north of the Bishop’s Gate on the Downhill demesne was constructed by Sir James Robertson Bruce, the second baronet. The school for boys and girls was established in 1824 by the Kildare Society, at a cost of £119. It was non-denominational and under the Kildare Society’s custodianship dedicated to educating the poor. Sir James donated the land for the building and subsidised the teachers’ salaries. (Eccles)

The current building was constructed in 1872 and is first shown, captioned ‘Downhill School’ on the third edition OS map of 1904. The school enters valuation records at an exempted valuation of £8 and 5s for the playground, much higher than the valuation of the previous school which was £3, indicating a more spacious building commensurate with the growth of the town. The school could accommodate 90 children but the average attendance was 52 in the 1930s. Valuation records show that the Bruce estate maintained the building until the mid-1930s when it was closed and a new school built elsewhere.

By the mid-1970s the school was being used as a farm building (Girvan), and it was listed in 1977. By the 1990s a fire had destroyed the building, leaving only the walls standing. (HB file; owner information) The building has been renovated c2000 for use as a domestic dwelling and a sun-room extension added to the south elevation. (HB file)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/2/1 First Edition OS Map 1831
2. PRONI OS/6/5/2/2 Second Edition OS map 1848
3. PRONI OS/6/5/2/3 Third Edition OS Map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/2/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1923
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/10A-F Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
6. PRONI VAL/3/C/6/2 First General Revaluation 1933-57
7. PRONI VAL/3/D/6/3/H/5 First General Revaluation 1933-57
8. HB file – 03/12/010

Secondary Sources

1. Eccles, J “Downhill, A Scrapbook of People and Place” London: Bath Press, 1996
2. Girvan, W D “Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Areas of Architectural Importance in North Derry including Limavady, Ballykelly, Castlerock, Downhill and Magilligan” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1975
3. www.castlerockgc.co.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
R. Age
U. Historic Associations

Evaluation

Detached asymmetrical one-and-a-half-storey stone former school, dated 1872, with gabled front entrance porch. Located on a narrow lane to the north of Freehall Road on an elevated site. Well proportioned and retaining its original basalt walling, this former school was gutted by fire in 1990s and later converted for use as a residential dwelling. Despite having lost most of the interior, the building represents part of the nineteenth-century built heritage of the Downhill Estate and is part of the social history of Castlerock.

General comments

Additional listing criteria apply - R- Age & U- Historic Associations.