Tonaghmore Primary School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A symmetrical red-brick double-height gabled former school; dated 1862 and located to the west side of Drumnavaddy Road northeast of Banbridge. Rectangular plan with single-storey gabled entrance porches (later) to north and south gables.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles, plain bargeboards and red-brick chimneystacks to gables. Plastic rainwater goods on over-hanging timber eaves having cast-iron down-pipes. Walling is English garden wall-bonded red-brick with yellow-brick quoins and dressings on a cement rendered plinth. Windows are round-headed 2/2 margin-paned timber-framed sash with exposed boxes in alternate yellow-brick surrounds with projecting granite sills; large timber casement windows to rear.

The principal elevation faces east and is three evenly-spaced windows wide. To centre under eaves is a modern plastic plaque reading “TONAGHMORE PRIMARY SCHOOL”.

The south gable has yellow brick diamond motif at gable; at right is a slate plaque with inscription reading TONAGHMORE NATIONAL SCHOOL A.D. 1862. Abutted at left by the gabled red-brick entrance porch with modern six-panelled timber door at left and casement timber window to right cheek.

The west (rear) elevation has two large casement windows to left and right.

The north gable is abutted at right by the gabled red-brick entrance porch with modern metal-sheeted door with ramped access; timber casement window to right cheek.

Setting

Situated in an unspoiled rural location fronting a country road on the outskirts of Banbridge. Gravel yard to rear accessed to north via a set of modern timber gates. Bounded to road at north by modern timber fencing over slender round-headed masonry piers.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: brick
Windows: timber
RWG: uPVC/cast-iron

Historical information

Tonaghmore Primary School, a single-storey redbrick schoolhouse, was constructed in 1862 (dated). It was the third schoolhouse built in the townland of Tonaghmore. The first school in the area appeared on the first edition of the Ordnance Survey maps (1833) showing the school to the north of the current structure along the Drumnavaddy Road (the current school is situated at the fork between the Drumnavaddy and Moorestown roads. The second schoolhouse had been constructed by the second edition of the maps in 1860 on the site of the current school, although this building (which was captioned as ‘School Ho[use]’) was arranged at a right angle to the existing structure.

Griffith’s Valuation noted that the 1833 school building was still standing by 1861 and both schoolhouses were jointly valued at £4 and let by a Mr. Hugh Lindsay (it is not known whether Hugh Lindsay was related to the Banbridge-based linen family – no Hugh Lindsay appears on Rankin’s genealogy of the family (Rankin, p. 38)). The current schoolhouse was constructed in 1862 and was first depicted on the third edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1903-18 which showed the building occupying the current layout; however there was no change in the value of the site in 1862 and by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929 the schoolhouse continued to be valued at £4 despite the demolition of the northern school in the late-19th century.

Upon its constructed Tonaghmore School was administered under the National School System. Under the system, local schoolteachers could apply for a grant from the Board of Commissioners for National Education. In 1858 Tonaghmore applied for such a grant; in its application the school recorded that the second schoolhouse was constructed with brick and mortar and possessed a slate roof, measured 28 by 18ft and could accommodate 42 children. In the report it was recorded that the regional school was originally established c. 1829 and was connected with the Church Education Society although by 1858 the school had cut its connection with the established church and was administered under the National School System.

The second schoolhouse was demolished by 1862 when the existing building was constructed. In 1924 an inspection of the current school found that the new edifice was in a good state of repair although no descriptive details concerning the fabric of the schoolhouse were included. Tonaghmore continued to operate as a rural primary school until at least the First Survey in 1969; by that time modern extensions and modifications had been made to the schoolhouse altering its original Victorian character. Tonaghmore Primary School is no longer utilised as a rural schoolhouse and has fallen vacant although field inspection finds that it has been well maintained and is in a good state of repair.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 – First edition Ordnance Survey map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903-1918
4. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/32 – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19/A – Annual Revisions 1864-1875
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19/B – Annual Revisions 1876-1889
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19/C – Annual Revisions 1889-1901
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19/D – Annual Revisions 1902-1911
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/19/E – Annual Revisions 1912-1929
10. PRONI ED/1/17/58 – Grant Aid Application 1858
11. PRONI ED/14/C/194 – School Inspectors Report 1922-25
12. First Survey Record – HB17/13/008 (1969)

Secondary Sources

1. Rankin, K., ‘The linen houses of the Bann Valley: The story of their families’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

A symmetrical red-brick gabled double-height former school; dated 1862. Simply detailed and well-proportioned, much of the historic fabric is intact and the character is largely unchanged. Of interest mainly due to its history as one of the earliest surviving examples of a rural school. The current building replaces two earlier school houses on the same site, with the first originating back to the late Georgian period. A well-preserved and increasingly rare example of a school in its original setting, built to the standard plan-form adopted under the National School System introduced in 1831.