Former Schoolhouse, Bluestone Public Elementary School, Bluestone Road, Portadown, Co Armagh, BT63 5SH

Former Bluestone Public Elementary School, Bluestone Road, Portadown, County Armagh

This is a freestanding single-storey four-bay former schoolhouse, built around 1823, to the designs of an unknown architect, located on the north-west side of Bluestone Road approximately 5 kilometres east of Portadown, in the townland of Lisamintry. It is one of the larger type of rural national school buildings and is a rare surviving example of a pre-1830s school building. It operated as a school for over 150 years, only closing sometime between 1955 and 1981, and is of considerable local, social and historical interest.

Form and Layout

The building is roughly T-shaped on plan, with a projecting mono-pitched entrance porch to the front, a lean-to addition against the north-east gable wall, and a single-storey rear return. The main volume has a pitched roof; the rear return is hipped at its far end. Both roofs are covered in natural slate with angled ridge tiles. Rainwater goods throughout are uPVC, fitted to plain eaves. The walls are painted roughcast render over red brick. Window openings are generally camber-headed and contain multi-paned timber casement windows with painted masonry cills, except where noted otherwise.

Exterior

The principal elevation faces south-east and is asymmetrical, with three windows protected by steel mesh. The projecting entrance porch has plain reveals and carries a name plaque bearing the lettering 'BLUESTONE PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL'.

The south-west elevation shows the gable wall and the rear return wall. The gable wall has a single multi-panelled timber door with a plain transom above it, and a single square-headed window opening with steel mesh over it. There is also redundant uPVC piping on this wall. The rear return wall has two square-headed window openings, also with steel mesh over the windows. The gable is surmounted by a painted roughcast rendered chimneystack with a stepped masonry cornice.

The north-west rear elevation comprises the rear return wall and the wall of the main volume. The rear elevation windows of the main volume match those on the front. The rear return has no windows and the same walling as throughout. The north-east elevation is not accessible due to overgrowth, but a mono-pitched slated lean-to with painted roughcast walling and a window is visible from the front. The gable here is surmounted by a chimneystack identical to that on the opposite side.

Boundary and Outbuildings

The boundary wall is of painted render with triangular masonry coping. Two gate piers with pyramidal coping carry a wrought-iron gate over a flight of steps leading down to an infilled entrance. To the rear there is an outbuilding constructed of painted concrete blocks with a corrugated iron roof over a timber fascia.

Historical Background

The National School system was established by the British Government through the Stanley Letter of 1831, with the aim of providing education for all children between the ages of 6 and 12. Controlled by the National Board of Education, the system was intended to introduce, in the words of the founding letter, "a system of education from which should be banished even the suspicion of proselytism, and which, admitting children of all religious persuasions, should not interfere with the peculiar tenets of any." The National Schools replaced the widespread informal hedge schools, which were considered unsatisfactory on account of their primitive physical conditions, the poor quality of their teachers, and their antiquated curriculum. National Schools provided a good basic education and significantly increased literacy rates during the 19th century. Building costs and teachers' salaries were largely met by government grant.

However, this building predates the formal National School system. It first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1835, shown as a rectangular-plan building labelled 'School Ho.', with only a handful of dwellings along the same road. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of September 1837 describe it as a 'neat cottage', though further information was reportedly refused by the schoolmaster, one Jonathan Webb. A subsequent entry in the same source records that the building was 'built [in] 1823', 'was patronised by the Society for Discounting Vice', and had 'about 128 scholars', presumably not all accommodated simultaneously. By the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1863–64, what appears to be the same building is shown again, with a Methodist Meeting House now constructed almost directly opposite. A caption reading 'school ho.' appears further to the west on this map, just east of Lylo House, apparently suggesting a second schoolhouse nearby, though the circa 1860 valuation book confirms that this building was still the functioning school at that time, describing it as the 'Church Education Society's Schoolhouse & Caretaker's rooms', valued at £2 10s 0d.

Alterations and Later History

The building remained in the ownership of the Church Education Society until around 1923, when, following educational reforms introduced by the new Northern Ireland government, it became a Public Elementary School. Modifications to the building are apparent over time. Plans for a large rear return to provide an additional classroom, a front porch, a new girls' entrance on the north side, and a separate latrine and play shed block to the north-west — all estimated to cost £635 — were drawn up by architect James McKeown of Bridge Street, Portadown, and approved by the Department of Finance in 1927. Tenders were advertised at the end of that year and the work was presumably carried out in 1928, though not under McKeown's own superintendence, as he died suddenly in early 1928. On the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map of 1953–55, the building is shown as L-shaped, and is labelled 'County Primary School'. The school closed sometime between that date and 1981, when it no longer appears on mapping, and the building has remained in disuse since. It is currently in private ownership and the listing extends to the former school building together with the boundary wall, gate piers and wrought-iron gate.