Former Poyntzpass Primary School, Railway Street, Poyntzpass, Co Armagh, BT35 6SN

Former Poyntzpass Primary School, Railway Street, Poyntzpass, County Armagh

This is a fine, little-altered mid-Victorian former National School, built in 1855–56. It replaced an earlier school on the same site, constructed around 1826–28 slightly further to the north, closer to the street line. The building is single storey and symmetrical in plan, well proportioned and carefully detailed, and retains considerable local and architectural interest.

The walls are rendered with a projecting plinth, and all window and door openings have chamfered sandstone surrounds. The roofs are covered in natural blue-black slates, with exposed rafters and cast iron rainwater goods throughout.

The plan is straightforward: two separate classrooms to the rear, each entered through a lobby, with entrance doors set to the sides. Between the two lobbies, back to back, are two small stores. The front elevation faces north-east. The two lobby projections sit either side of the central stores, which are surmounted by a sandstone bellcote. Beneath the bellcote is a simple triangular pediment bearing an inscribed plaque reading "National School". There appears to have been a further inscription above this, but it has been removed. On the front elevation, the roofs are half-hipped and finished with scalloped bargeboards. Each lobby has a single two-over-four sliding sash window, and the stores have smaller one-over-two sliding sash windows of similar design.

The side elevations are similar in character, with each classroom lit by three two-over-four sliding sash windows, again with exposed rafters and cast iron rainwater goods. The lobby entrance doors are vertical-sheeted timber doors with large decorative cast iron hinges, reached by steps, the last two of which are granite. The door to the south-west retains a cast iron boot scraper. The rear elevation has four two-over-four sliding sash windows — two per classroom — with exposed rafters and cast iron rainwater goods. Two tall chimney stacks rise adjacently from the centre of the rear roof, serving the two classrooms.

The former school sits on an elevated site close to the railway station, on the south side of Railway Street. It shares an extensive site with a mid-twentieth century split-level house. A straight pedestrian path connects the school to Railway Street, terminating at a simple wrought iron hooped gate supported on single-piece granite gateposts. To either side of the gate are short lengths of random rubble walling with matching railings. The walling has square terminal piers with granite semi-circular copings.

Historical Background

The school originally operated under the Kildare Street Society system before applying to join the National Board in September 1846. The earlier school had been built with the assistance of Colonel Maxwell Close, landlord and owner of Elm Park, who had purchased the Moore estate of Drumbanagher, to the south of Poyntzpass, in 1818. The 1846 grant-aid application to the Education Commissioners notes that Colonel Close intended to build two large schoolrooms "in the spring"; however, this work was not carried out until late 1855. An inspection report from April 1856 noted the "excellent new school-house" that had been erected since the previous inspection in late summer or early autumn of 1855. Construction was not entirely finished at that point: a November 1856 inspection report records that the inscription "National School" was not yet in place, and that internally "a clock was wanted."

According to the Poyntzpass and District Local History Society, the stonework was carried out by local masons Edward and Patrick McCourt, who were paid three shillings and four pence per day. The identity of the architect is not known. Colonel Close had employed William Playfair of Edinburgh to design his new mansion at Drumbanagher in the 1830s, and possibly also the west gate lodge to the same estate in 1847. It is conceivable that Playfair prepared plans for the school at that time, which were later adhered to when building eventually began; however, given that construction did not take place for another eight years, and that Playfair was of considerable age by the mid-1850s and died in 1857, it is unlikely that he oversaw any of the work even if he had designed the building.

A house for the schoolmaster and schoolmistress — James and Catherine Watson — was constructed in 1863 to the north of the school. The school continued within the National system as "Poyntzpass No. 2 National School" (No. 1 School was at the northern edge of the town) until the educational reforms of 1923, when it became a Public Elementary School. Following the 1947 reforms it became the County Primary School. It closed in 1972, with pupils transferring to the newly built Poyntzpass (New) Primary School off the Tandragee Road to the north of the town. The premises subsequently passed into private ownership and appear to have been used as a tyre store during the mid-1980s. The former schoolmaster's house was demolished around the same period.

Among the teachers who served in the school were Robert Judge, for many years President of the Irish National Teachers' Organisation and founder of the Retired Teachers' Association, and Robert Harvey, musician, mathematician and photographer.

A Building Preservation Notice was served on 25th January 2007. The extent of listing covers the former school and its boundary wall, including the gates.