Mullaghglass Primary School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Single-storey six bay primary school located on Goragh Road, approximately 3 miles NNW of Newry, Co Down. The school is located to the immediate W of the Belfast–Dublin railway line and to the immediate E of the former Teacher’s Residence (HB16/21/092B).

Rectangular plan form with pitched natural slate roof, two metal roof vents, two red brick chimneys to gables and a single pointed arch window with y-tracery to gable at E end.

Walls are painted rough-cast and all windows (with exception of aforementioned pointed arch window) are replaced with uPVC.
Large single storey extension abuts rear wall of original school building.

Materials:
Windows – UPVC with painted stone cills
Walls – Painted rough-cast
Roof – Natural slate roof
RWGs – cast iron

Setting
The school is located on the N side of Goragh Road on a constrained site to the immediate W of the Belfast–Dublin railway line and to the immediate E of the former Teacher’s Residence (HB16/21/092B).

Historical information

The schoolhouse at Mullaglass (sometimes spelled Mullaghglass in historic records) was originally constructed c1827 and was subject to remodelling c1907-8 and subsequently.

A ‘School Ho.’ is shown on the first edition of 1834-5 beside the ruins of a former church of unknown date, thought to be early 17th century, and its associated graveyard. Ordnance Survey Memoirs (c1837) record that the school dated from 1827 and was a Kildare [Place] Society school. The school had cost about £150 most of which was contributed by the landlord, Roger Hall, and the remainder by the Society. The children paid the master from 1d to 3d per week. There was a total of 121 children at the time of survey (c1837), 111 boys and 10 girls, largely Protestant and with a Protestant master (five Catholics attended the school), the majority (87) being under 10 years old. The Townland Valuation of c1835 records the dimensions of the school as 39ft 6in x 23 feet and 9 feet 6 inches in height (to the eaves). The quality mark shows that the school was slated. The fieldbook does not refer to a teacher’s residence and this was likely a later addition (before 1861).

The Kildare Place Society was established in 1811 by a group of philanthropists that set up non-denominational schools where the bible was read without commentary. The KPS provided the basis for the National School system which was set up in 1831, after which time the government grant to the KPS was ended. The Church of Ireland’s Church Education Society took over the Kildare Place Training Institution in 1850 in order to train Anglican teachers. Surviving records show that several teachers at Mullaglass (including the principals, Francis Atkinson and Joseph Burrows) were trained at the Kildare Place training institution between the years of 1888 and 1898.

Griffith’s Valuation of c1862 records the site as a ‘Scriptural school house’ valued at £4.10s, and leased from Roger Hall of Narrow Water Castle. By this time, the school had most likely come under the auspices of the Anglican Church Education Society. A teacher’s house had been added to the site and was valued at £3.5s and leased by John Francis, the school master. The 1861 OS map shows that the teacher’s dwelling house adjoined the school, and this is further confirmed by the 1906 large-scale map and by a surviving sketch of the school and the master’s house which appeared in the Newry Reporter in 1906. The sketch shows that the original schoolhouse had a hipped roof (newly fitted with a ventilator in 1906) and three large windows to the front elevation, while the adjoining teacher’s house featured chimneys to the end gables, five windows to the front elevation and a porch with pitched roof.

By 1873, the connection of the school to the Church Education Society had lapsed and the funding of the school was taken over by the National School Board. School records from this period note the dimensions of the schoolroom as 36 x 21 feet (the school then consisted of a single room), and the schoolhouse was 10 feet in height (these measurements are consistent with the original dimensions recorded in the Townland Valuation). The school had six desks and 13 forms and the teachers were Dubliner Henry Fenn and his wife Thomasina. Former dressmaker Thomasina gave instruction in needlework for two hours each day. Thirty boys and 28 girls attended the school on average, said to be nearly all the children of ‘farmers in comfortable circumstances’ within its catchment. Henry Fenn, who was appointed as principal of the school in 1867 and retained by the National School Board when the school came under its jurisdiction, continued to teach at the school until his retirement in 1904.

A newspaper report records that in 1907, following the gifting of the schoolhouse, teacher’s residence and adjoining land to the Armagh Diocese Board of Education by the landlord, Captain Roger Hall, the schoolroom was ‘thoroughly renovated’ and the building of a new teacher’s residence and the making of a classroom were ‘under consideration’. This work had been completed by 1908, radically altering the appearance of the schoolhouse, and was noted in valuation records and in National School Board records. A separate teacher’s house was built to the W of the schoolhouse and at the same time, the former teacher’s residence was incorporated into the schoolhouse to give another classroom, but this was done using ‘local expenditure’.

Following partition in 1921, national schools in the North became public elementary schools and for a time, the school appears in valuation records as ‘Latt Public Elementary School’ (the school is situated in the townland of Latt). After the 1947 Education Act, public elementary schools became primary schools or county primary schools, Mullaglass being usually known from this point as Mullaglass Primary School (the 4th edition OS map captions it as Mullaglass Co. Pr. Sch.)

The present appearance of the schoolhouse is consistent with some remodelling over the years. Map evidence suggests that the front porch to the W end of the building at the location of the former teacher’s dwelling was removed between 1956 and 1979. A historic photograph held by the school, most likely dating from around 1960 shows the school without the entrance porch but with much smaller windows than it has today, as well as an additional window at lower ground floor level to the W end of the building. This window was removed and the remaining windows substantially enlarged following the taking of this picture.

The photographic, map and other evidence together with the irregular fenestration of the schoolhouse, and a gothic window to the E elevation suggest that, although the school building has been subject to considerable alteration over the years, it was never fully rebuilt and contains fabric from the original early 19th century schoolhouse.

Further buildings have been added to the school site since 1979, in line with modern requirements for primary education. The school remains in use as Mullaglass Primary School and is now in the ownership of the Southern Education & Library Board.

References:

Primary Sources

1. Day, A and McWilliams, P (eds) (1990) Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland: Vol 1 Parishes of County Armagh 1835-8 Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, Queen’s University
2. PRONI OS/6/2/26/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1834-35)
3. PRONI OS/6/2/26/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1861)
4. PRONI OS/6/2/26/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1906)
5. PRONI OS/6/2/26/5 – Fifth Edition Ordnance Survey Map (1956)
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/244A & B Townland Valuation c1835
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/2/37C– Griffith’s Valuation (c1862)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/15/22A-F – Annual Revisions (1865-1929)
9. PRONI VAL/12/A/3/84 – Valuer’s Notebook (1909)
10. PRONI VAL/3/C/2/5 – First General Revaluation 1936-1957
11. PRONI VAL/4/B/2/24 – Second General Revaluation c1956
12. PRONI VAL/14/B/309 – Third General Revaluation 1975-1987
13. PRONI VAL/14/C/276 – Third General Revaluation 1987-1993
14. PRONI ED/1/13/126 – Mullaglass School Grant Aid application (1873)
15. PRONI ED/1/13/135 – Mullaglass School Grant Aid application (1873)
16. PRONI ED/6/3/2/2 – Folio 53, Roll No 10948/1019 (1905-1954)
17. PRONI ED/14/B/141 Mullaghglass National School (1922-1924)
18. PRONI SCH/792/1 – Registers Mullaglass School (1901-1958)
19. PRONI SCH/792/5 – Inspector’s Observation Book (1875-1952)
20. Newry Telegraph, 11th March 1905
21. Newry Reporter, 21st August 1906
22. Belfast Newsletter, 8th April 1907
23. Lurgan Mail, 23rd April 1932
24. Census of Ireland 1911

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Single-storey six bay primary school located on Goragh Road, approximately 3 miles NNW of Newry, Co Down.
Due to the large 20th century extension to the rear which diminishes the special interest of the original modest school building and the loss of historic fabric and detailing, there is insufficient special interest to meet the criteria for listing.