Former St John's Primary School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached gabled single-storey rendered former school and attached single-storey with attic-storey rendered former schoolmaster's house, dated 1853. Irregular on plan facing southeast located on the east side of St. John's Road on a landscaped elevated site enclosed by rubblestone walling with a rubblestone former coach-house to the northwest.

Pitched natural slate roofs with roll-moulded clay ridge tiles, two part rendered redbrick chimneystacks with terracotta pots and two slated and timber-sheeted gabled dormer windows. Cast-iron rainwater goods on iron brackets to rendered eaves course. Painted ruled and lined rendered walling with cement coping to all gables. Square-headed window openings with carved sandstone sills and uPVC windows (unless otherwise stated).

Symmetrical front east elevation with pair of slender gabled entrance porches, with a later glazed lean-to extension now spanning the space between both former porches and a further flat-roofed extension. Both gabled projections have a wall plaque with the Downshire monogram and raised lettering stating; 'Girls School / 1853' to the south gable, 'Boys School / 1853' to the north gable.

South elevation facing the road has a large gabled projection to the east end with a pair of tall slender window openings and a lozenge panel to the apex. The remainder of the elevation constitutes the former schoolmaster's residence and has a slender gabled entrance projection and dormer windows to either side.

Blank gable to the west elevation of the former schoolmaster's house. The rear west elevation to the school has two window openings.

North rear elevation to the schoolmaster's house is abutted by a pair of rendered lean-to additions dating from the early to mid twentieth-century. North side elevation of the school building comprises a large gable, as south side elevation.

Setting;
Located on the east side of St. John's Road on an elevated site with mature scots pine trees enclosed by rubblestone walling to the road with stacked coping and a decorative cast-iron pedestrian gate on rendered piers. To the northwest of the site is a single-storey rubblestone former coach-house with pitched natural slate roof and a pair of redbrick lined square-headed openings, that to the south having an original timber plank door. The interior to the structure has cobbled flooring.

Roof Natural slate
RWG Cast-iron
Walling Painted ruled and lined render
Windows Steel casement / uPVC

Historical information

A ‘school house’ first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map (1859) for the Hillsborough area located slightly north of St. John’s Church of Ease in the townland of Corcreeny. The layout of the schoolhouse has not discernibly altered from this period when it was depicted on the Ordnance Survey map as an L-shaped building possessing a small outbuilding to the west which was used as a privy building. From the earliest records the schoolhouse was associated with the nearby St. John’s Chapel which had been constructed in 1840.

The school was let to the Church Education Society by the Marquis of Downshire free of rent, although the building was valued at £5 10s. A building plan supplied with the valuation field book of 1861 records that the school house measured 58ft by 22ft whilst a teachers house attached to the west side of the building measured 16ft by 22ft and was valued at £2, providing accommodation for the school principal. The schoolhouse continued to be valued at £5 10s. until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930 and no alterations to the school building are discernible in the later editions of the Ordnance Survey maps except that in the third edition (1919-20) the school is recorded as ‘St. John’s School’ for the first time.

The Irish Builder and two date-stones located above both the boys and girls entrances to the school record that the school was constructed in 1853, although as early as 1838 the Archdeacon of Down the Rev. Walter B. Mant was planning the construction of a Church of Ease at Corcreeny and an affiliated school house (Irish Builder Vol. 11, 4 June 1853, p. 362). The church was constructed in 1840, however it was not until the aforementioned 1853 that the school was first opened operating for 150 years at this site until its closure in 2003 (St. John’s Primary School, p. 3). The church was built to accommodate rural parishioners in Upper Kilwarlin that were either too far from Hillsborough, or felt increasingly excluded by the expansion of the town; similarly this school provided a closer alternative to the major schools in Hillsborough and the surrounding district (Barry, p. 81). Such was the initial success of the school that an application to become a national school was accepted in 1879, although the school continued its association with the Established Church, which is worthy of note as the National School System was implicitly non-denominational in nature. The schoolhouse was used for a variety of purposes over the following years; in 1880 the local Orange Order proposed to hold their meetings in the School (although this was rejected by the school commissioners), a post office was installed in the newly converted teacher’s house in 1897 and in the twentieth century the schoolhouse was often utilised as a venue for church events, as a vestry meeting room, and during local elections as a polling station.

The acceptance of the school into the National Schools system resulted in the creation of a salaried teacher’s position at the school and the production of school records. The first recorded national school teacher was a Mr. John Buchanan who occupied the post between 1879 and 1881; later teachers of note included a Mr. Robert G. McCrory who became the school principal, at 20 years old in August 1939 although due to the outbreak of the Second World War he left the school to enlist, however he was not to return as he was killed at the front in 1943. The outbreak of the Second World War affected the school in another way with the arrival of evacuated children to the area. The Belfast Blitz of April 1941 resulted in the evacuation of many urban-based Northern Irish children to the countryside; the names of evacuated children first appeared on the school roll in 1941, however by August 1942 the evacuees had returned home when the German bombing of the UK had effectively ended.

Due to its low position on the road, the schoolhouse was prone to flooding and suffered from damp; however an application to the Co. Down Regional Committee for aid during the war was rejected due to the scarcity of funds and building material. The damp issue was never satisfactorily resolved and as the school became increasingly run down further issues arose; the school privies, for example, dated from at least 1879 and were used until at least 1974. Repeated applications by the School Management Committee for their replacement were not accepted as were other restoration projects; former students of St. John’s recalled the dinginess of the school and in particular the poor repair of the interior and the toilet facilities. The lack of refurbishmment of the schoolhouse over many years may have resulted in the c. 2000 decision to reallocate the school to new premises which were opened in 2002; the last principal of St. John’s ceremoniously locked the doors of the former schoolhouse in 2003 (St. John’s Primary School, p. 18; 45-50)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/21/1 – First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/21/2 – Second Edition OS Map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/21/3 – Third Edition OS Map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/21/4 – Fourth Edition OS Map 1919-1920
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/45 B – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14A – Annual Revisions 1864-1879
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14B – Annual Revisions 1880-1889
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14C – Annual Revisions 1890-1908
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14D – Annual Revisions 1909-1928
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/20/14E – Annual Revisions 1928-1930
11. Irish Builder Vol. 11, 4 June 1853. (Dictionary of Irish Architects - http://www.dia.ie/).

Secondary Sources

1. Barry, J., ‘Hillsborough: A parish in the Ulster plantation’ (3rd ed.), Belfast, Universities Press., 1982.
2. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the towns and villages of Mid Down: Hillsborough, Dromore, Dromara, Ballynahinch, the Spa, Drumaness and Saintfield’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1874.
3. ‘St. John’s Primary School 1853-2003’ Lisburn: Summit Printing, c. 2003.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Detached, gabled single-storey rendered former school and attached single-storey with attic-storey rendered former schoolmaster's house, dated 1853. Vacant since 2002 this former school and schoolmaster's house provided by the Downshire estate and bearing its monogram, largely retains its overall composition, external materials and detailing. It enjoys a fine rural setting and has group value with the nearby St. John’s Church of Ireland (HB19.05.130) which was conceived and constructed at a similar time. The school is enhanced by the retention of the small coach house, cast iron pedestrian gate and walling and has significant social interest for the local community.