National School

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Modest, well-executed school building of two storeys set to west of the Presbyterian Church on the N side of Church Green in Dundonald village. The vestibule and stairs occupy a separate bay to the S end which has been used to highlight the entrance. Walls are squared, coursed, rubble Scrabo stone with a dressed chamfered stone string course at first floor sill level and rustic brick dressings to openings. Windows to ground floor are twelve-light with opening section at top left; those to first floor are sixteen-light ogee-headed.

Main (entrance) elevation faces E. At left is the entrance bay with full-height pilasters (reducing slightly on first floor) either side of door rising to stub columns above eaves level topped by pyramidal caps with chamfered rims and ball finials above a moulded cornice. Doorway in dressed stone surround with ogee arch and fanlight with tracery over. Light fitting above. Single window over. Above the window is a chamfered cornice with battlements above between columns. To right the façade of the main schoolrooms is plain with three windows evenly spaced to ground and first floors. Here the roof overhangs with a cast iron gutter. At extreme right, the rear wall of the link section runs into the school wall and render has been brought around the corner from the N end.

S gable to vestibule bay has one window at first floor with a Datestone above - 1844. Either side of this elevation are the pilasters as before. The cornice carries round from the front and follows the roof pitch up to a round engaged finial on a moulded bracket stone that rises to a conical cap with ball finial. Flat coping. Ground level rises towards rear.

Rear elevation is plain – the entrance features are on the main façade and the gable onto the public space of the square only. Other wise detailed as before. There are two windows at either end of the ground floor with arched windows above to the first floor.

N elevation ground floor is obscured by the flat-roofed link block. The gable above has been rendered in smooth cement and is plain with the stone chimney rising from the apex.

Windows: timber painted Rainwater Goods: cast iron painted
Doors: original and timber painted sheeted Roof: natural slate

Historical information

This former schoolhouse dates from 1844, built on a site given free by the Cleland family of Stormont. The identity of the architect is uncertain; it may have been the work of 'Messrs. Black of Belfast' who designed the neighbouring Presbyterian church, whose congregation caused the school itself to be built.

The congregation established the school in reaction to the recently opened 'large and handsome' (Church of Ireland) parish school, which refrained from offering 'particular religious instruction of any kind'. Shortly after it was completed, the Presbyterian minister, Rev. Martin, applied to the National Board for support. The Church of Ireland curate, Rev. Arthur Farrell, objected, and an inspector was sent. Apparently the inspector was told by 'a respectable yeoman of the village', that 'no one could afford' the fees charged by the parish school and that as a consequence, parents were regularly 'persecuted in the courts of law for this payment'. The inspector was duly convinced, and the new school was brought into the National system in 1845.

By the mid 1890s the schoolhouse could not cope with the volume of pupils, and, eventually, it was decided to move to a new building. A new school (with schoolmaster's house) was built on the south side of Church Green in 1901. This in turn was replaced by a larger building, (the core older section of the recently much enlarged Dundonald Primary School), situated further to the south, in 1923.

The school is now used by the Presbyterian Church (HB25/05/004) as a minor hall.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL/1B/317 First valuation, Dundonald parish, 1833
2 PRONI OS/6/3/5/1 OS map, Co. Down sh.5, 1833-34
3 PRONI OS/6/3/5/2 OS map, Co. Down sh.5, 1858
4 PRONI VAL/2B/3/17 Second valuation, Dundonald, 1860-61
5 EHS OS plan of Dundonald, 1902
6 PRONI OS/6/3/5/4 OS map, Co. Down sh.5, 1919

Secondary sources
1 Carr, Peter, '"The most unpretending of places"- A history of Dundonald, County Down' (Dundonald, White Row Press, 1987), pp.127-29, 137, 168, 175, 183, 214, 217
2 Hanna, Alexander, 'These three hundred and forty years of witness- A historical outline of Dundonald Presbyterian Congregation 1645-1985', (1985), pp.36-39
3 Information supplied by Dundonald Primary School, 2007

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

Modest, well-executed school building of two storeys set to west of the Presbyterian Church (HB25/05/004) on the N side of Church Green in Dundonald village. It is a good example of a minor public building continuing in use and its age and historic association with both the Cleland family of Stormont and the church add to its interest.