Drumballyroney Old School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A detached single-storey former schoolhouse, dating from the late eighteenth century and now in use as part of the Brontë Interpretative Centre, along with the former Drumballyroney Church (HB17/09/011A). Simple rectangular plan extended to east by a toilet block.

Pitched natural slate roof with rendered skews and paired lozenge chimneystacks (partially rebuilt) to gables, rendered and painted white. Cast-iron rainwater goods on drive-in brackets. Walling is limewashed lime render. Windows are replacement timber casements, with painted masonry cills.

Principal elevation faces north and has four openings, including a replacement timber sheeted door to left of centre. It supports a wrought-iron pedestrian gate to right of centre, accessing the church yard.

East gable is completely abutted by the toilet block.

South elevation has three window openings.

West gable is blank.

Setting

The school is set on an elevated site overlooking the surrounding countryside and the Mournes to south and east. There is a small burial ground to south, bounded by hedgerow and mature trees; dated burial markers from the early eighteenth century, several stones appearing earlier. Immediately to north-west, sharing the site, is the former Drumballyroney Church (HB17/03/011A), also part of the Brontë Interpretative Centre. Entrance is accessed from a picnic area at north, having a mosaic plaque depicting a scene from Wuthering Heights; accessed from east via a tarmac car park bounding the site. Bounding the road to north is a roughcast boundary wall, having a wrought-iron pedestrian gate.

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

Historical information

Drumballyroney Schoolhouse, currently operating as the Bronte Homeland Interpretative Centre is a key building in the Bronte Homeland trail which explores the history of the Bronte family in the area and also includes Drumballyroney Church (HB17/09/011A). The original schoolhouse was constructed prior to 1830 and appears on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1833 as a small (uncaptioned) rectangular structure to the east side of Drumballyroney Church. The school was not included in the Townland Valuations of the 1830s; however the contemporary Ordnance Survey Memoirs noted that ‘Ballyroney Parish School,’ as it was then known was ‘a thatched cabin in good repair.’ The school accommodated 30 pupils at that time, 26 of whom were Presbyterians whilst four were from the Church of Ireland; no Roman Catholic children attended the school at a time when attendance of hedge schools remained the primary source of education for that denomination (between 300,000 and 400,000 children in Ireland attended hedge schools during the 1820s). The school was partially funded by the adjoining church whilst the pupils themselves paid the salary of the teacher (Ordnance Survey Memoirs, p. 13; Connolly, p. 249).

The building was first captioned as a ‘School Ho[use]’ on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1859 and was valued at £2 in Griffith’s Valuation of 1862. There was no alteration to the value of schoolhouse by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929; however on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1901 02) the schoolhouse appears slightly larger than it did in 1859. The schoolhouse was reconstructed 1870 by public subscription resulting in this alteration; the school was reconstructed at this time as this was the year that the school joined the National School system, perhaps transferred as a result of the uncertain financial position of Drumballyroney Church during the disestablishment of the Church of Ireland (1871).

Drumballyroney School is historically significant as the Rev. Patrick Bronte, father of the famous literary Bronte sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne), was employed there a schoolmaster in the late-18th and early-19th centuries. Patrick Bronte was born on 17th March 1777 at a nearby single-storey dwelling in the townland of Emdale (HB17/08/021). Before teaching at Drumballyroney, Bronte worked as a teacher at the schoolhouse at Glascar Presbyterian Church (HB17/08/024) however he was dismissed from this post in 1798. Local tradition states that Bronte was ejected from the school as he was discovered to be in a romantic relationship with one of his pupils. During the late-18th century Drumballyroney Church was led by the Rev. Thomas Tighe who was known as the ‘father of Irish Evangelism.’ Tighe offered Patrick Bronte the position as schoolmaster at Drumballyroney Schoolhouse and also employed him to tutor his own children, however in 1802, only a few years after gaining the position, Patrick Bronte left Ireland (with Tighe’s assistance) to pursue a career in the church at Cambridge (Cannon, pp 84-88; Walker, p. 75; Rankin, p. 189). It is traditionally believed that once Patrick Bronte was ordained he returned to Drumballyroney Church where he preached his first sermon (Young, p. 39).

It is not known when Drumballyroney Schoolhouse ceased to function, however in 1924 a school inspectors report stated that the school was ‘old and obsolete;’ the First Survey image appears to show the former schoolhouse lying vacant and in a state of disrepair, overgrown with weeds. However, with the deconsecration of Drumballyroney church in the 1976, the church and the adjoining schoolhouse were purchased to house the Bronte Homeland Interpretative Centre. Drumballyroney Schoolhouse was listed in 1977 and continues to house the Bronte Homeland Interpretative Centre which is a popular local tourist attraction dedicated to educating the public of the Irish roots of one of literatures most famous families.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/42/1 – First edition Ordnance Survey map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/42/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/42/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1901-1902
4. PRONI OS/6/3/42/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1919-1920
5. PRONI VAL/1/A/3/42 – Townland Valuation map 1833
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/357A+B – Townland Valuation c. 1830
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/59/A – Griffith’s Valuation 1862
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4A – Annual Revisions 1864-1876
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4B – Annual Revisions 1877-1887
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4C – Annual Revisions 1887-1898
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4D – Annual Revisions 1898-1911
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/4E – Annual Revisions 1912-1929
13. PRONI ED/14/C/372 – Drumballyroney National School 1922-24
14. Ordnance Survey Memoirs, Co. Down I Vol. 3 (1836)
15. Ulster Street Directories (1843-1918)
16. First Survey Record – HB17/09/011 (1970)

Secondary Sources

1. Cannon, J., ‘The history of the Bronte family: From Ireland to Wuthering Heights’ Gloucestershire: Sutton Publishing Limited, 2000.
2. Rankin, F., ‘Clergy of Down and Dromore’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996.
3. Walker, S., ‘Historic Ulster Churches’ Belfast: The Institute of Irish Studies, 2000.
4. Young, A. F., ‘Old Rathriland, Hilltown and Ballyroney’ Ayrshire: Stenlake Publishing, 2002.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Drumballyroney School (now the Brontë Interpretative Centre) is a simple single-storey schoolhouse dating from the late nineteenth century and forming a group along with the neighbouring Drumballyroney Church (HB17/09/011A), with which it shares a site. The school is plainly detailed although compromised by alterations and additions it remains of interest as part of the church site an representing the history of education in the locale.

General comments

This record has been renumbered as part of a group. It was formerly found under reference HB17/09/012.