former National School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Free-standing three-bay double-height former schoolhouse (now an agricultural outbuilding), built 1828 (datestone), and renovated c1920. Rectangular on plan, facing west with attached extension aligned to south (added c1900) and partially collapsed two-bay extension aligned to north. At the end of a short (50m) laneway to the east of Cregganduff Road and aligned with the hedge boundary to the adjacent field.

Pitched corrugated asbestos roof with leaded ridge line and asbestos rainwater goods on concrete block eaves course. Roughly coursed rubblestone walling with limewash. Attached extension to south has concrete rendered walling. Rubblestone extension to north is roofless and partially collapsed.

Principal elevation faces west and has round-headed window openings having redbrick voussoirs and stepped redbrick surrounds), fixed multi-pane metal-framed windows with horizontally pivoting central pane and concrete sills. Extension has pair of round-headed blind windows.

South elevation comprises cement rendered gable ends of main schoolhouse and of abutting extension. Extension having single three light, fixed pane, metal-framed window. Plinth course having corduroy tooled datestone bearing inscription ‘TULLYNAVALL SCHOOL BUILT A.D. 1828’, likely moved from elsewhere.

East elevation having projecting porch entrance to left-hand extension, with angled, flat concrete roof and rounded concrete support to left. Three concrete steps lead to interior. Remnants of timber door frame, door missing. East elevation otherwise blank. Remains of concrete rendered rubblestone wall abut right end of east elevation, likely remains of a previous porch entrance.
Gabled north elevation has single square-headed door opening with concrete block surround to right. Timber frame to doorway, door missing. Stone lintel partially missing. Shadow of previous porch entrance visible with remnants of concrete render. Concrete block and cement render repairs to apex of gable. Right hand side of north elevation abutted by partially collapsed remains of rubblestone extension.

Setting:

Located on the east side of Cregganduff Road, within a
setting of agricultural fields and at the end of a short laneway. The schoolhouse is aligned with the hedge boundary to the adjacent field and is accessed through a replacement double gateway having square on plan rubblestone piers. A new dwelling has recently (2022) been constructed on the adjacent site to the south.

Materials:

Roof: Corrugated asbestos
RWG: Asbestos
Walling: Rubblestone
Windows: Fixed multi-pane, metal framed.

Historical information

Tullynavall School was constructed in 1828 close to the Presbyterian Meeting House in Freeduff townland, place of worship for the small Presbyterian community that had been established in the parish of Creggan in the 1730s. The former school, with vestibule extension added c1900, has a foundation stone bearing the date 1828. It was the only Protestant school in the parish of Creggan on its establishment and later became a National School, closing due to falling numbers in 1943.

Funds were raised by subscription to construct the schoolhouse, the largest donation coming from Dr Atkinson the Rector of Creggan parish church. Alexander Hamilton, a local landowner and Counsellor-at-law, also subscribed £5 and further amounts were donated by local gentry and their tenants. The site for the school was gifted in perpetuity by Alexander Clark. The school, initially called the Tullynavall Classical and Mercantile School, was completed in 1828 and the schoolmaster received an annual salary of £3 from Counsellor Hamilton which was subsidised by the fees received from pupils ‘according to their proficiency in learning’. Forty to 70 pupils attended the school during these early years. The OS Memoirs of 1837 record that there were 94 pupils, 48 males and 46 females, each paying from 1s.6d and 2s.6d per quarter.

The school appears on the First Edition OS map of 1835, captioned ‘School Ho[use]’ and is shown as rectangular on plan with a small extension to the eastern elevation, possibly a porch. The porch is also shown on the second edition and site inspection of the building has confirmed that there are remnants of a porch structure to the east elevation.

By 1840 Tullynavall had come under the care of the Presbyterian General Synod and on 16th March 1848 the school began to receive financial support from the National Schools Board. As was usual for National Schools, which had initially been conceived as non-denominational, the management of the school was not secular but was undertaken by a succession of Presbyterian ministers. A single schoolmaster was responsible for educating an average of 37 pupils per day. The National School Board records (Tullynavall is entered into the records in 1848) contain dimensions for the building of 36 feet x 16 feet and 12 feet high to the eaves.

Under the National School system, the government provided funding for schools, reducing or eliminating the need to charge fees to pupils. Although the pupils were largely from Presbyterian families, the school also received Catholic children from the surrounding community at some periods in its history. Fourteen of the 59 pupils on the rolls in the last quarter of 1859 were Catholic. In 1892, the assistant teacher at the school is also recorded as Catholic. However, the school enrolment registers reveal that the school was mixed in terms of the religious background of pupils between 1867 and c1890 followed by a long period in which children of a Presbyterian or Established Church background almost exclusively appear on the rolls. This changed to a more mixed picture again following partition in 1922.

On the second edition OS map (1862) the building is captioned ‘National School’, and on the third (1906-7) ‘Tullnavall School’. The east facing porch appears to have been removed by this time and a replacement extension had been constructed abutting the south of the main building. A datestone bearing the inscription, ‘TULLYNAVALL SCHOOL BUILT A.D. 1828’ is to be found in the foundation of the extension, but this has most likely been moved from elsewhere in the building, perhaps the demolished porch.

By 1910 when an advertisement appeared in the Northern Whig for a Principal at Tullynavall, there were 34 children on the roll. National Board records state in 1913 that it was ‘desirable that a qualified mistress be appointed in order that the elder girls may receive instruction in Needlework etc’ and it appears that only female teachers were appointed after this time. In 1920 the school had an average of 28 pupils on the rolls, 22 Presbyterian, five Established Church and one Catholic. However, due to falling numbers, a proposal was made in 1922 that the school be amalgamated with Creggan National School. This decision was ultimately rescinded but the school remained under threat for the next two decades. In 1923 the premises are recorded as ‘renovated and in very good order’ and the teaching comprised oral and written English, arithmetic, history, geography, singing, drawing and needlework.

At the time of revaluation in 1934, there were 20 pupils on the roll. The school was assessed as having a single room with boarded floors and ceilings, a dado and plastered walls. Dimensions are given for the school (37½x20x15), the single storey porch extension (7x19x9) and an attached outbuilding which may have contained earth or water closets (13x9x10).

A Presbyterian lady principal was advertised for in 1936, Tullynavall once again having become a ‘one teacher school’. The school carried on with falling numbers and in 1940 a proposal was again made to close it. However, following intervention from Armagh County Education Committee the school remained open. On 10th July 1943, the Ministry of Education finally withdrew grants from the school and it was closed.

The building was in use as a ‘Church Hall’ by the fourth edition of 1956, but this use appears to have been short-lived and in recent years the former school has been used as an agricultural outbuilding.

References

Primary Sources:

1. Newry Telegraph, 10th November 1829
2. PRONI ED/6/1/2/3 National Schools Correspondence Registers (1832-1855)
3. Day, A and McWilliams, P (eds) Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Vol 1 Parishes of County Armagh 1835-8 Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University, 1990
4. PRONI OS/6/2/28/1 First Edition Six Inch OS map (1835)
5. Commissioners of National Education in Ireland: twenty-second report, House of Commons Papers 1855
6. Return of National Schools in Ireland in which Protestant and Roman Catholic children were jointly receiving education, House of Commons Papers, 1861
7. PRONI OS/6/2/28/2 Second Edition Six Inch OS map (1862)
8. PRONI VAL/2/B/2/14C Griffith’s Valuation Parish of Creggan (1862)
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/12/2A-E (1859-1923) Annual Revision Lists, ED Cloghoge
10. Commissioners of National Education in Ireland: fifty-ninth report, House of Commons Papers 1892
11. PRONI OS/6/2/28/3 Third Edition Six Inch OS map (1906-7)
12. Northern Whig, 20th December 1910
13. PRONI VAL/3/C/2/13 (1935-1957) First General Revaluation, Rural District of Newry, Vol 2
14. PRONI VAL/3/D/2/6/M/4 (1933-57) Valuer’s RV Binder, ED Dorsy
15. Witness (Belfast), 7th February 1936
16. Belfast Newsletter, 17th April 1940
17. Belfast Newsletter, 6th February 1942
18. PRONI VAL/4/B/2/21 (1956-1972) Second General Revaluation, Rural District of Newry, No 2
19. PRONI OS/6/2/28/4 Fourth Edition Six Inch OS map (1956-7)

Secondary Sources:

20. Donaldson, John A historical and statistical account of the barony of Upper Fews in the county of Armagh 1838, Dundalk: W Tempest (reprinted 1923)
21. McMahon, Kevin ‘Tullynavall National School Records’ Journal of Creggan Local History Society, 2005/6, Vol 12 pp.74-100
22. Nelson, Rev. Simon History of the Parish of Creggan in counties Armagh and Louth, 1611-1840 Belfast: Public Record Office of Northern Ireland

Evaluation

Freestanding three-bay double-height former schoolhouse built 1828 and renovated c1920. The building retains several original features, notably double-height round-headed window openings and is of an early date. However, due to the loss of all interior detailing, and significant fabric replacement, particularly the roof, the building does not meet the criteria for listing.