Former School House (now church hall)

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Small, plain single storey gabled school house of 1904, now used as a church hall. The building is set on the W side of the Bryansford Road, just S of Newcastle town centre.

The front (E) façade is symmetrical. In the centre is a large gabled porch with recessed timber sheeted double door to front, with fanlight. To the N and S faces of the porch there is a small six pane window. The porch roof has an overhang. To the left of the porch are two larger multi-pane windows. To the right of the porch are two similar.

The S gable is blank. The N gable has two windows, as before. The rear façade could not be seen, but the building may be linked at this side to a larger modern hall to the rear.

The façade is finished in lined render with a string course and in/out quoins to the porch. The gables have some mock half-timbering to the apex. The roof is covered in natural slate and has an overhang with exposed rafter ends. Plain barges. Cast iron rw goods. Traditional signboard to porch front. Rubble wall to roadside.

Historical information

This former Church of Ireland parochial school house was built in 1904 at a cost of some £1,100. It replaced another which had stood on this general site since the 1830s. A teacher’s residence was also built to the rear of the new building. The school closed in 1962 and the building was taken over by St John’s church for use as a parish hall. A new hall was erected to the rear of the building in 1969, on the site of the former teacher’s residence. Both the new and old halls continue in parish use.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI D.1503 Annesley Papers.
2 PRONI OS/1/3/49 OS map, first ed., Co. Down 49.
3 PRONI OS/6/3/49/2 OS map, first rev., Co. Down 49.
4 PRONI OS/8/136/1-4 OS plans of Newcastle, 1901.

Secondary sources
1 J.G. Jackson ‘St John’s Church, Newcastle- A brief history 1832-1982’ (Mourne Observer Press, Newcastle, 1982).
2 Grenfell Morton ‘Victorian and Edwardian Newcastle’ (Belfast 1988).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Small, plain single storey gabled school house of 1904, now used as a church hall.