Former Seagoe Parochial Schools building, Seagoe Road, Seagoe, Portadown, County Armagh, BT63 5HS

Former Seagoe Parochial Schools, Seagoe Road, Portadown

This is a small, single-storey schoolhouse in a Tudoresque style, built in rubble masonry and dated by its inscription to 1859, though documentary evidence suggests construction actually took place between 1860 and 1862. A substantial brick extension was added to the rear around 1930. The building is now used as a parish hall. It stands on the northwest side of Seagoe Road, directly opposite St Gobhan's Church of Ireland church, roughly one mile northeast of Portadown town centre. As an example of the early to mid-Victorian enthusiasm for the Tudor style it has considerable merit, though its architectural integrity is somewhat compromised by the later extensions.

The building sits on a southwest-to-northeast axis. Originally roughly rectangular in plan, with large projecting gabled bays and small projecting porches to its southwest half, the addition of the rear extension has made the overall plan more square, though still irregular. The roof, excluding the rear extension, consists of various gabled sections: those belonging to the original building are covered in artificial slate, while the extension is covered in natural slate. The gables have stone parapets, and a rendered chimneystack rises from the west-facing gable of the original section. There is a large rooflight to the original section, largely obscured from view by the roof of the extension. Rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and uPVC.

The principal road-facing elevation faces southeast. Reading from left to right, it is made up of the side of one projecting porch, then a large full-height gabled bay, then the gabled side of a second porch, with the main hall section of the building making up the right-hand half of the elevation.

The main entrance is in the south face of the left-hand porch. It consists of a shouldered doorway containing a timber sheeted door with decorative strap hinges. The original sandstone dressings to the doorway have been covered with smooth, lined cement render, though the shoulder blocks and lintel remain exposed. The lintel carries a moulded panel with the word 'Boys' in blackletter script, indicating this was formerly the entrance to the boys' school. Above the lintel, the gable is brick-built. The east face of the porch is built in roughly squared, galleted basalt rubble — the characteristic material of the original parts of the building — with smooth cement render quoins. A small, narrow flat-arch window with a two-pane timber frame, brick dressings, and a stone sill is set into this face.

The large gabled bay immediately to the right of the porch has brick quoins and a central grouping of three flat-arch window openings separated by brick piers. The central opening is broader and taller than those flanking it and has a mullioned and transomed timber frame with margin panes to each light. The outer windows have similar frames but without the mullion; each has a stone sill and a stone lintel with a bevelled reveal. Above the central window, close to the apex of the gable, is a decorative sandstone panel bearing the inscription: 'Seagoe Parochial Schools… Erected by public subscription. James Saurin A.M. Rector, Archdeacon of Dromore. A.D. 1859'. The gable is topped with a large bellcote, now without its bell.

Immediately to the right of this large gabled bay is the considerably smaller, irregular gable of the second porch, finished in the same manner as the larger gable. It contains a narrow flat-arch window with a three-pane timber frame, brick dressings, and a stone sill. In the north face of this porch is a flat-arch doorway with a door matching the one described above, brick dressings, and a sandstone lintel carrying the word 'Girls' in the same blackletter style.

The right-hand half of the southeast elevation is finished in the same rubble and brick manner as the porches, and has three evenly spaced, roughly square flat-arch windows with replacement timber casement frames in a style similar to those on the gabled bay. All windows in the building are now replacements made in the style of the originals.

To the right-hand end of the south elevation is the main entrance porch described above. To its left, finished in rubble and brick as on the southeast elevation, are two windows matching those on the right-hand side of that elevation. Set well back to the far left is the gable of the extension, which is now abutted by a low, flat-roofed projection also attached to the west-facing gable of the original section. This projection is in brick and was built in three stages, as evidenced by its differing roof levels. The southernmost portion is a boiler house topped with a large cylindrical tank. Above this projection, on the gable of the extension, is a segmental-arch window with a frame similar to those described elsewhere on the building.

The west elevation presents the large extension to the left and centre, with a gable of the original section to the right. The extension is built in brick. To the far left is a flat-arch doorway with a plain timber sheeted door and a concrete lintel, reached via a flight of concrete steps with a metal handrail. To its right is a flat-arch window with a timber frame similar to those on the right-hand side of the southeast elevation, with a concrete sill and lintel. Next to it is a narrower window of the same character. To the right again is another doorway similar to the first. The gable to the far right is finished in roughcast and has two tall, narrow windows similar to the outer windows on the large gabled bay of the southeast elevation. This gable is now cut across by the flat-roofed projection described above. On the west face of the southernmost (boiler house) portion of that projection is a flat-arch doorway with a plain timber sheeted door. The central and northernmost portions of the projection each have a flat-arch window on their west faces, both with concrete sills; the northernmost has a timber frame similar to most of the windows elsewhere, while the central one has a plain single-pane timber frame.

The north elevation presents two gables: that of the original building to the left and that of the extension to the right. The former is finished as the southeast elevation and has a similar grouping of three windows, though the brick dressings around the central window appear to have been replaced at some stage. Brick patching above and below this window suggests further changes, though the hue and size of the brick used indicates this work was either carried out very early in the building's life or may even be an original feature. The extension gable, built in brick, has a single window similar to the central window on the original gable but with a shallow segmental head.

The building is set within a tarmac-covered yard enclosed from the footpath by a combination of wire fence, hedge, and brick wall. The brick wall to the south contains a vehicle gateway. To the south of the yard stands an L-shaped, single-storey gabled dwelling house in brick with an attached outbuilding, believed to have been built around 1910 as the caretaker's residence. Spanning Seagoe Road directly to the east of the former school is a metal footbridge of around 1970.

The date stone records that the school was erected in 1859 by public subscription under the direction of the local rector, James Saurin. However, the building does not appear on the Ordnance Survey map of 1860 but is recorded in the valuation of 1862, suggesting — if the map is accurately dated — that construction took place between those years rather than in 1859 as the inscription states. The school was initially administered by the Church of Ireland's Church Education Society, later became part of the National system, and following the education reforms of the 1920s became a primary school. The rear extension appears to have been added in the 1930s. The school is believed to have closed in the 1990s, after which the building was converted to its present use as a parish hall.