Sunday School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A T-shaped single-storey rubblestone church hall to St Mary’s Parish Church (HB03/13/001A); dated 1851 and located to the south side of Dunderg Road in Macosquin. T-shaped plan with modern glass entrance lobby to northeast and modern cement-rendered flat-roof extension to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof having angled ridge tiles and a replacement red-brick chimneystack; decorative bargeboards to gables. Plastic rainwater goods red-brick eaves course with alternate projecting headers. Walling is random rubblestone with red-brick dressings and generally lime pointing. Windows are replacement 6/6 timber sash with horns in red-brick surrounds with projecting stone sills; pointed-arched metal margined diamond lattice window to northwest gable, comprising two lights with quatrefoil over, in a cement rendered surround with concrete sill.

The principal elevation faces northwest comprising central projecting gable and flanking bays each with a single window. Gable has window and datestone over inscribed “A.D 1851”; 6/6 window to each cheek; replacement timber-sheeted door to left cheek.

Northeast gable is abutted by the modern glass entrance lobby (of no interest).

The southeast elevation is abutted by a cement-rendered flat-roof extension (of no interest).

The southwest gable has two windows.

Setting:

Situated on the site of St Mary’s Parish Church (HB03/13/001A); a square plot with cemetery to the south side of Dunderg Road in Macosquin village. Adjoined to the church to east by a modern aluminium framed glass lobby. Cemetery to three sides has a variety of headstones dating from the first part of the nineteenth-century. Site is bounded to three sides by rubblestone walling. To front is a rubble stone wall with sandstone coping, in part topped by decorative replacement cast-metal railings; square sandstone piers with chamfered caps support replacement cast-metal entrance gates.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Rubblestone
Windows: Replacement timber sash with horns and metal lattice
RWG: Plastic

Historical information

A date stone located at the site records that St. Mary’s Church Hall, a single-storied T-shape Blackstone rubble building formerly utilised as a Sunday school, was constructed in 1851 and was the second schoolhouse constructed at St. Mary’s Church (see HB03/13/001). The first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps for Macosquin (1830-31) records that the first schoolhouse was located to the north side of the church and was depicted as a rectangular-shaped structure, simply captioned as ‘school.’ The Ordnance Survey Memoirs (c. 1835) described the benefits of the Sunday school for the parish, noting that ‘there has been in the last 10 years a marked moral improvement in the parish arising from the influence of Sunday schools and the increased circulation of the Bible … shown by the decrease of amusements and of drinking’ (Ordnance Survey Memoirs, p. 89).

The current schoolhouse was completed in 1851 but construction of the building must have commenced by at least 1850 as the building was depicted on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in that year. The contemporary Griffith’s Valuation (1856) notes that the school house was administered by the Church Education Society and was valued at £4. There was no discernible change to the layout of the school on the later editions of the Ordnance Survey maps (1904-1949); similarly the value of the schoolhouse remained at £4 by the cancellation of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

Under the First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland (1935) the value of the Sunday school was increased to £16; there was no further survey carried out for over two decades due to the disruption caused by the Second World War, however under the second revaluation (1956-72) the value of the building was further increased to £20. In the intervening period the valuation sources note that the former schoolhouse had been converted and was being utilised as a church hall.

St. Mary’s former Sunday school continues to be utilised as the parish of Macosquin’s church hall. The building was listed in 1977 along with the adjoining church; in 2010 the former schoolhouse was refurnished with the installation of a new kitchen and a computer suite. The construction of a modern extension has connected the hall and its church, creating an entrance porch between the formerly separate buildings. The work was undertaken by J. A. Gamble Construction and cost approximately £105,000 (which was provided by fundraising amongst the parish) (St. Mary’s Church website). The former school continues to be utilised as the church’s hall and includes the Minister’s office, a small meeting hall and the kitchen and computer suite from the 2010 refurbishment.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/5/7/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1830
2. PRONI OS/6/5/7/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1849-50
3. PRONI OS/6/5/7/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1904
4. PRONI OS/6/5/7/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1923
5. PRONI OS/6/5/7/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1949
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/5/9A – Griffith’s Valuation 1856
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/30/11A-F – Annual Revisions 1860-1929
8. PRONI VAL/3/B/6/1 – First General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland 1935
9. PRONI VAL/4/B/5/5 – Second General Revaluation of property in Northern Ireland 1956-1972
10. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Londonderry VI, Vol. 22 (1831-36)
11. Ulster Town Directories (1860-1918)
12. First Survey Record – HB03/13/002 (1971)

Secondary Sources

1. Rowan, A., ‘The buildings of Ireland: North West Ulster’ Yale: Yale University Press, 1979.
2. ‘Clergy of Derry and Raphoe’ Belfast: The Ulster Historical Foundation, 1999.

Online Resources

1. St. Mary’s Church website - http://camus-juxta-bann.org/index.html

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
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance
U. Historic Associations

Evaluation

A T-shaped single-storey rubblestone church hall; dated 1851 and located to the south side of Dunderg Road in Macosquin. The building has been refurbished with some alterations, additions and loss to original detailing, and chimneystack. Some loss of integrity with the addition of a modern glass entrance lobby to northeast gable and a single-storey cement rendered extension to rear. Despite this, the building retains its original character. The hall has important group value with the adjoining St Mary’s Parish Church (HB03/13/001A) and together they form a well preserved group, making an important contribution to the historic rural landscape of the Coleraine district. The building is of significant local interest and social importance to the surrounding community.

General comments

This buildings has been renumbered. Formerly known as HB03/13/002.

Listing Criteria R - Age; S - Authenticity; T - Historic Importance and U - Historic Associations also apply.