Ballyclare High School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An attached multi-bay two-storey modern brick schoolhouse, built c.1955, located at the west side of Rashee Road. The schoolhouse is rectangular on plan, facing east, with two-bay two-storey flat-roofed entrance block at the right end and a single-storey flat-roofed block to entire north elevation.

Hipped natural slate roof with blue/black clay round ridge tiles, moulded cast-iron gutters with rectangular downpipes (embossed with “4x6”), smooth-rendered projecting eaves. Walling is English Garden Wall-bonded red brick over plinth with concrete dressings. Windows are square-headed uPVC casements with continuous concrete sills and lintels.

East elevation is abutted to right end by entrance block; remaining section has three windows to each floor with ground floor surmounted by additional shortened band of windows, with single blocked porthole windows to either side. Entrance block right bay is blank with a concrete flagpole holder to parapet-level, the left bay slightly projects and has a first floor slit-like vertical window over square-headed entrance with a flat-headed concrete canopy. Door is replacement timber and glazed with overlight, concrete lintel, and flanked by two windows.

South elevation has tiles corbelled to eaves; band of windows to each floor.

West elevation ground floor is abutted to left end by original schoolhouse, ground floor remainder is abutted by single-storey flat-roofed glazed linking block (of no interest). Exposed section ground floor has shortened bands of windows above linking block; first floor has two windows interrupting eaves.

North elevation is abutted by single-storey block. Exposed section has one first floor window to left end, band of shortened clerestorey windows to ground floor above abutting block (not externally visible).

The original school, built c.1950, is a multi-bay single-storey block with a hipped slated roof and red ridge and hip tiles, square-headed metal casement windows separated by strip band. It is abutted to east end by additional school block and to centre of south elevation by modern extension.

Setting

The school is situated slightly below road-level in a tarmac parking lot and separated from the pavement by a brick boundary wall with concrete coping, accessed via metal gates. The school block and old school block are located at the southwest of the school complex, which consists of numerous school blocks built between 1960 and 1990.

Historical information

The school has its origins in the 1890s as a private fee-paying establishment in Doagh, a short distance from Ballyclare. In 1902 the school was run by Catherine Aiken, who moved it to Ballyclare in 1904. Due to a population growth in Ballyclare, a bigger school was needed and subsequently new premises were built on the current Rashee Road site. The headmaster of the time was an Englishman named Arthur Fowweather ‘who when appointed in 1923 was believed to be the youngest Headmaster in the British Isles’. The current name of Ballyclare High School was used officially from 1934 (Ballyclare High School).

The mid 1930’s saw an increase in students, and therefore a larger building was required. An extension was opened in October 1938 'costing the princely sum of £8,000’. This was carried out by W.D.R. & R.T. Taggart (Irish Architectural Archive)

The end of the Second World War brought about many social changes, including many reforms in the education sector. In particular the ‘1947 Education Act fuelled a huge rise in the number of pupils attending grammar school’. Consequently by October 1948 Ballyclare High School’s school population had reached 401. These increases led to problems with accommodation which were partly resolved by the provision of prefabricated huts and mobile classrooms which were used into the 1980s. In 1966, the school buildings were further extended including a new Gymnasium, another extension was opened in 1987 which cost £4 million.

References:

Secondary Sources

1. Ballyclare High School. “Brief History of Ballyclare High School” [Internet Source].
Available from: (accessed 17/11/08)
2. Irish Architectural Archive. “Dictionary of Irish Architects” [Internet Source] Available from:
Accessed 12/05/09.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A two-storey mid-twentieth-century brick school block with Art Deco and Modernist influenced detailing that is attached to an earlier single-storey block. Although most original metal windows have been replaced, the school retains a few original window examples and the majority of its original exterior detailing. It is an example of a rural school displaying many of the architectural and material innovations of the time but although of robust character and significant in the locale, it is not among the best examples of the type.