Former Seagoe Parochial Schools building

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small, Tudoresque rubble-built single-storey schoolhouse, dated 1859 but probably built between 1860-62, with brick extension to rear of c.1930. Now used a parish hall. The building is set on the northwest side of Seagoe Road, (directly opposite St Gobhan’s C of I church), roughly one mile northeast of Portadown town centre.

The roof (outside of the rear projection) consists of various gabled sections with the sections belonging to the original building covered in artificial slate and the extension in natural slate. The gables have stone parapets, with a rendered chimneystack rising from the W-facing gable of the original section. There is a large rooflight to the original section (although this is largely obscured from view by the roof of the extension). The rw goods are a mixture of cast-iron and uPVC.

The building, which is set on a SW-NE axis, was originally roughly rectangular in plan, but with large projecting gabled bays and small projecting porches to the SW half. With the addition of the extension to the rear, however, the plan is now more square, but still irregular.

The long road-facing front elevation faces SE, but for the purposes of this description, SE will be read as E etc. This elevation is made up of a the side of one of the porches, to the left, then a large full-height gabled bay, then the (gabled) side of another porch with the main hall section of the building beyond this making up the right half of the elevation.

The main entrance is located in the S face of the porch to left. It consists of a shouldered doorway within which is set a timber sheeted door with decorative strap hinges. The doorway’s original sandstone dressings have been covered with (lined) smooth cement render, however the shoulder blocks and the lintel are still exposed. The lintel has a moulded panel with the word ‘Boys’ in a Blackletter style script (this was formerly the entrance to the boys’ school). Above the lintel the gable is brick-built. The E face of the porch is built in roughly squared galetted basalt rubble, (as is much of the rest of the original part of the building), with smooth cement render quoins. There is a small narrow flat-arch window to this face with two pane timber frame, brick dressings and a stone cill.

The large gabled bay to the immediate right of the porch has brick quoins and a central grouping of three flat-arch window openings separated by brick piers. The central opening is broader and taller than those flanking it, and has a mullioned and transomed timber frame with margin panes to each of the lights. The outer windows have similar frames, but without the mullion, and each window has a stone cill and a stone lintel with a bevelled reveal. Above the central window, close to the apex of the gable, there is a decorative sandstone panel which reads: ‘Seagoe Parochial Schools…Erected by public subscription. James Saurin A.M. Rector, Archdeacon of Dromore. A.D. 1859’. The gable is topped with a large bellcote, now without a bell.

To the immediate right of the large gabled bay is the much smaller (and irregular) gable of the second porch. This is finished in the same fashion as the larger gable and contains a narrow flat-arch window with three-pane timber frame, brick dressings and a stone cill. To the N face of the porch there is a flat-arch doorway with door as before, brick dressings and a sandstone lintel the word ‘Girls’ in the same style as the other doorway.

The right half of the E elevation is finished in the same manner as the porch and has three evenly-spaced flat-arch (roughly) square windows with (replacement) timber casement frames in similar style to those to the windows on the gabled bay.

To the right hand end of the S elevation is the main entrance porch, described above. To the left (which is finished in rubble and brick as the E elevation) of this are two windows, as those to the right hand side of the E elevation. To far left (but set well back) is the gable of the extension. This gable is now abutted by a low flat-roofed projection which is also attached to the (W-facing) gable of the original section (see below). This projection is in brick but was built in three stages, as evidenced by its differing roof levels. The southernmost portion of the projection is a boiler house and is topped with a large cylindrical tank. Above the projection, on the gable of the extension) there is a segmental-arched window with frame similar to those described previously.

The W elevation consists of the large c.1910 extension to left and centre, with a gable of the original section to right. The extension is constructed in brick. To the left on the extension there is a flat-arch doorway with plain timber sheeted door and concrete lintel. This door is reached via a flight of concrete steps with a metal handrail. To the right of this there is a flat-arch window with a timber frame similar to those to the right hand side of the E elevation, a concrete cill and lintel. To the right of this is another window, much as before but narrower. To the right again is another doorway, similar to that to far left.

The gable to far right is finished in roughcast and has two tall narrow windows similar to the outer windows on the large gable to the E elevation. This gable is now cut across by the projection mentioned above. To the W face of the southernmost (boiler house) portion there is a flat-arched doorway, with a plain timber sheeted door. The central and northernmost portions of the projection each have a flat-arched window to their respective W faces, both with concrete cills. The window to the northernmost portion has a timber frame similar to most of the previous windows, with a plain single-pane timber frame to that to the central portion.

The N elevation consists of two gables, that of the original building to left and that belonging to the extension to right. The former is finished as that to the E elevation and has a similar grouping of three windows. However, in this case the brick dressings around the central window appear to have been replaced at some stage. Brick patching above and below this window suggest other changes, however the hue and size of the brick involved suggests that this patching was either carried out very early in the building’s life, or that it is an original feature. The gable of the extension (which is in brick) has a single window, similar to the central window on the previous gable, but with a shallow segmental head.

27.01.2006 All the windows are now replacements in the style of the original.

SETTING

The building is surrounded by a tarmac covered yard, enclosed from the footpath by a combination of a wire fence, a hedge and a brick wall. The brick wall (to the S) contains a vehicle gateway To the S of this yard is an L-shaped single-storey gabled dwelling house in brick, with attached outbuilding, believed to have been built c.1910 as the caretaker’s residence.

Spanning the Seagoe Road directly to the E of the former school is a metal footbridge of c.1970.

Historical information

The date stone tells us this school was built in 1859 through ‘public subscription’ organised by the local Rector James Saurin. The building, however, does not appear on the OS map of 1860, but is recorded in the valuation of 1862, suggesting (if the map is dated correctly) that it was actually built between these dates and not that indicated on the date stone.

The school was initially administered by the Church of Ireland’s Church Education Society. Like many other such schools it later became part of the National system and, following the education reforms of the 1920s, a primary school. The rear extension appears to have been added in the 1930s.

The school appears to have closed in the 1990s and the building is now used a parish hall.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/2A/2/10A OS map, County Armagh sheet 10, with valuation
references (1860-62)
2 PRONI VAL/2B/2/19B Second valuation, Seagoe parish (1862)
3 PRONI VAL/12B/14/7A Annual valuation revision book, Kernan ED (c.1864-78)
4 PRONI VAL/12B/14/7B Annual valuation revision book, Kernan ED (c.1879-91)
5 PRONI VAL/12B/14/7C Annual valuation revision book, Kernan ED (c.1892-1906)
6 PRONI VAL/12B/14/7D Annual valuation revision book, Kernan ED (c.1907-19)
7 PRONI VAL/12B/14/7E Annual valuation revision book, Kernan ED (c.1920-29)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

Small, Tudoresque rubble-built single-storey schoolhouse of 1860-62, with large brick extension to rear of c.1930, now used a parish hall. As an example of early to mid-Victorian vogue for the Tudor style this building is of some merit, although compromised by the later extensions. The also site demonstrates the development of the school in the 20th century.