St. James' Primary School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A single-storey four-bay symmetrical former Victorian school dated 1845. Rectangular plan form with rear returns. Located at the junction between Moira Road and St James Road, adjacent to St James (HB19/05/137) Church in Kilwarlin.

Pitched natural slate with clay ridge tiles with a pair of ventilation cowls located on the ridge line. Cast-iron half circle gutters with circular downpipes. Red-brick chimney installed as part of the later rear return. Red-brick Flemish bond walling with corbel course at eaves level. Replacement uPVC windows with flat arch lintels and painted sandstone cills. The front door is incorporated into a projecting gabled painted brick porch. Timber sheeted double-leaf Tudor-arched front door with wrought-iron ironmongery.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged. Centrally located gabled entrance porch; painted brick with chamfered Tudor-arched opening; plain projected string course incorporated into the copings. Timber plaque inscribed with “St James Primary School” surmounted by a “Downshire” plaque inscribed with the date “1845”. The north and south cheeks of the porch have lancet openings with glazed wrought-iron window frames. Two windows either side of the porch.

The left gable is symmetrically arranged with a pair of tall lancet arched windows with a centrally located diminutive lancet arched timber louver vent over.

The rear elevation has a single window located on the far right with the central and left bays abutted by rear returns. Central gabled return, two bays deep added c.1920, distinctly newer brick but largely matching in details with the earlier block; central single window to the west facing gable; single window to the right on the south face with a single timber casement window to the north face. Earlier gabled return to the left bay single bay deep; single timber framed bi-partite fixed window left of centre on the gable with a timber sheeted door located left of centre on the north face.

The right gable is symmetrically arranged with a large square-headed opening centrally located; concrete lintel and cill. Diminutive lancet arched timber louver vent over.

Setting:

The building is located adjacent to St James’s Church (HB19/05/137). The site at the front is bounded by a modern red-brick wall with modern gates to the vehicular entrance. Original wrought-iron pedestrian gates located adjacent to the front entrance. To the rear of the site is a small car-park with a single storey red-bricked outbuilding with corrugated metal roof; boarded timber doors and timber bargeboards incorporating modern flat-roof toilet block extension to rear. The north and west of the of the site has largely been developed with housing, with further housing opposite the front entrance.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling: Red-brick
Windows: uPVC
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The present St James’ schoolhouse replaces an earlier building that is shown to the north of the present site on the OS map of 1833. This earlier school performed a dual purpose, also being used for worship by the farming community around Hillsborough but it was blown down on the ‘Night of the Big Wind’ in January 1839. The rector of Hillsborough, Archdeacon W B Mant then obtained a site for a new church from the Marquess of Downshire for which Charles Lanyon gave his architectural services free of charge. (HB19/05/137) (Clergy of Down and Connor, Part I, p.142)

The church was opened as a chapel-of-ease to Hillsborough in 1841, and the school in 1845. The buildings are listed in Griffith’s Valuation as St James’ Church, yard and parochial school house, valued at £14.10s and 10s for the yard. The school was run by the Church Education Society until it became a National School in 1878. No changes are made to the valuation in Annual Revisions, but a teacher’s residence (now gone) was added to the site in 1896 and valued at £6. (Clergy of Down and Connor, Part I, p.142; www.lisburn.com; Annual Revisions)

From 1878 until at least 1886, an evening school was held in the building and 46 men enrolled most of whom were weavers and farm labourers. The men were taught reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic. (www.lisburn.com)

In 1923 St James's became a Public Elementary School, at which time it appears to have been extended. The Marquess of Downshire handed over the lease of the school premises to the Down and Connor and Dromore Diocesan Board of Education in 1925. (www.lisburn.com)

During the Second World War, the number of pupils taught at the school was more than doubled by evacuees from Belfast, all ninety-five pupils being taught in two classrooms. One of the evacuees at St James's in 1941/2 was Ivor Mills, a former ITN newsreader. The school won the National Curriculum Award in 1990 and 1997. At the time of its closure in 2003, 127 pupils were enrolled at the school, which was said to be one of the oldest in the South Eastern Board’s area. (www.lisburn.com)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/14/1 – First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/14/2 – Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/14/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1902-3
4. PRONI OS/6/3/14/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-20
5. Griffith’s Valuation online

Secondary Sources

1. Rankin, F., Leslie, Canon, J.B., Swanzy, Dean H.B. “Clergy of Down and Dromore” Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1996
2. www.lisburn.com

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A single-storey four-bay symmetrical former Victorian school dated 1845. Externally the simple style and proportions are typical of a building of this type and much of the historic fabric and character has been retained; with the exception of the windows, now replaced with uPVC. The 20th century rear return adds to the interest of the building, highlighting its historical development and internally there are some joinery features surviving including original A-framed timber trusses with purlins and a diagonally sheeted timber ceiling. The setting of the school is complemented by the adjacent St James’s Church(HB19/05/137). Although of local and social interest the building is not of special interest and is not considered to be suitabe for listing.