Former Lancasterian School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An almost symmetrical multi-bay two-storey former school, now apartments; built c.1829 and located to the west side of Church Street in Banbridge town centre. Rectangular plan with two projecting side wings.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles, raised stone verges and rendered chimneystacks. Cast iron half-round rainwater goods on projecting eaves with cast-iron downpipes and hoppers. Walling is painted smooth render on a contrasting plinth. Windows are a variety of timber sliding sash with projecting sills; those to SE gables are set into double-height arched recesses.

The principal elevation faces south-east and is symmetrically arranged, comprising a rectangular main block with first floor balcony, flanked by gabled side wings. First floor balcony is flush with gables, has decorative cast-iron balustrade and is supported on four granite Tuscan columns; bi-partite 2/2 window to centre flanked by a 3/3 window to left and a timber casement window opening on a hinge to right. Ground floor has a replacement six-panelled timber door to left of centre and three 3/6 windows. The gabled side wings each have replacement multi-paned windows in altered openings at each floor set into a double-height three-centred-arched recess and a pedimented ornamentation to gable with rectangular recess; six-panelled timber doors to inner cheeks at ground floor.

The south-west elevation has three evenly spaced windows to each floor; 4/4 to first floor and 4/8 to ground floor.

The north-west (rear) elevation has a six-panelled timber door to left of centre and asymmetric fenestration. Gabled wings each have to their inner cheek, a replacement multi-paned timber door to first floor and a six-panelled timber door and window to ground floor. Gables have paired 2/4 windows at either floor.

The north-east fenestration is as the south-west elevation.

Setting

Facing the Bann River, the
setting has been significantly compromised with a modern housing development built in the grounds of the former school. The building is now part of the housing estate and has been converted into apartments. Tarmacadam to front with car-park. Enclosed yard to rear with rubble stone boundary wall.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

The former Lancasterian School in Banbridge dates from the late 1820s and was constructed as part of one of the earliest attempts to establish public education in the British Isles. The building served as a school house for well over a century before being converted to flats in the mid-1980s.

The ‘School Ho[use]’ on an I-shaped plan is shown, captioned, on the first edition OS map of 1833. An Education Commissioners’ Report of 1837 states that Banbridge Lancasterian School had been established in 1829 and was maintained by a combination of subscriptions (£30), donations from the Marquis of Downshire (£10), and pupils’ payments (£25). The salary of the master and mistress was £50 per annum, and the number of pupils 141. The teachers were Adam Glass and Hesther A Glass. (quoted in Linn)

The Lancasterian schools were the result of the campaigning work of the Quaker, Joseph Lancaster (1777-1838) who had been inspired by Andrew Bell, founder of the Madras System of Education. This method, approved by some of the Romantic poets, notably Wordsworth, Coleridge and Southey, was based on the premise that where teachers were in short supply, more advanced scholars could assist the younger pupils, thus instituting the monitorial system. In 1802 Joseph Lancaster published a pamphlet criticising the ‘wretched state’ of schools for the children of artisans. Lancaster was the son of a Chelsea pensioner and in the London Borough of Southwark he hired a single room where he gathered together a school of 1,000 children. He had neither assistants nor money but adopted Bell’s system and trained older children to teach younger and his school was a ‘striking spectacle of order and mental activity’. The regime was not a harsh one and it is reported that Lancaster was able to inspire the affection and loyalty of his pupils. (Haughton Crowe)

Lancaster’s ideas spread and led to the formation of the Royal Lancasterian Society which founded Lancasterian schools all over the British Isles, particularly in Ireland where financial constraints and shortage of teachers made the system especially attractive. In addition, Lancaster’s sytem, unlike Bell’s, was non-denominational. The success of Lancasterian schools led directly to the establishment of National Society for the Education of the Poor by the Church of Ireland, which was anxious to promote a strictly Anglican education. In Banbridge the parish church school and the Lancasterian school were for a time neighbours on the banks of the Bann. (Haughton Crowe)

However, the Townland Valuation (1828-40) describes the building, perhaps in error, as a ‘Kildare Street School House’ valued at £12.17s. Edward Reilly of Edenderry received ground rent for the school. The building was divided into two wings, one for boys and the other for girls and dwelling accommodation for the teacher who lived in the middle section. The Kildare Place Society, founded in 1811 in Dublin, was similar in ethos to the Lancasterian ideal and provided financial support for non-denominational education, but when the National School system was introduced in 1831, became affiliated to the Church of Ireland. (Coolahan; Smelser)

Griffith’s Valuation of 1856-64 and its associated town plan show that there were now apartments in the central section of the building for both the male and the female teacher. The teachers are noted to be Rev John Dixon and Harriet Glass and the building is now referred to as a ‘National School’. The school and teachers’ apartments were valued at £15 and the associated land at £1. There are no further changes in valuation in Annual Revisions but in the 1930s the school was redesignated a Public Elementary School and revalued at £30.

The school closed in the early 1950s and the trustees let the building to local organisations including the Scouts, anglers and pigeon fanciers. At the time of Brett’s 1969 survey of historic buildings in Banbridge, the building had recently been used as a youth club but was falling into disrepair. In 1985 the building was sold and converted into five apartments c. 1990, known as Lancasterian Court. (Young and Quail; Brett)

References:
Primary Sources
1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 Second Edition OS map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 Third Edition OS Map (c1900)
4. PRONI OS/6/3/27/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/348A Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/64C Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7A-C Annual Revisions (1899-1930)
9. PRONI VAL/12/F/4/1/1 Annual Revisions (1930-35)
10. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/4 First General Revaluation (1936-57)

Secondary Sources
1. Brett, C.E.B., Dunleath, Lady “List of Historic Buildings, Groups of Buildings, Buildings of Architectural Importance in
Borough of Banbridge” Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, April-July 1969
2. Coolahan, J “Irish Education: its history and structure” Dublin: Institute of Public Administration, 1981
3. Linn, Captain R “A History of Banbridge” (edited by W S Kerr) Banbridge Chronicle Press, 1935
4. Haughton Crowe, W “In Banbridge Town” Banbridge Chronicle, 1964
5. Smelser, Neil J “Social Paralysis and Social Change: British working-class education in the nineteenth century” Oxford:
University of California Press, 1991
6. Young, A F and Quail, D “Old Gilford, Scarva, Loughbrickland and Lawrencetown” Stenlake Publishing, 2002

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A multi-bay two-storey former school, now apartments; built c.1829 and located to the west side of Church Street in Banbridge town centre. Despite changes to the original openings and major alterations to the floor plan, its proportions and architectural detailing are intact and much of its original character survives. The setting has been developed with modern housing on all sides. It is of significant historical interest as an example of the Lancasterian system of private education introduced in 1815 and of subsequent changes resulting from developments in state education.