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

Former Seagoe Parochial Schools building

This small Tudoresque schoolhouse stands on the northwest side of Seagoe Road near Portadown in County Armagh, roughly one mile northeast of the town centre and directly opposite St Gobhan's Church of Ireland. The building dates to 1859, though it was probably constructed between 1860 and 1862. It is now used as a parish hall.

The original building is a single-storey rubble-built structure set on a southwest-northeast axis, with a brick extension to the rear dating to around 1930. The roof of the original section consists of various gabled areas covered in artificial slate, whilst 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. A large rooflight serves the original section, though it is largely obscured by the extension's roof. The rainwater goods are a mixture of cast iron and uPVC.

The long road-facing front elevation faces southeast. The southeast elevation comprises, from left to right, the side of a porch, a large full-height gabled bay, the gabled side of another porch, and the main hall section. The buildings were originally roughly rectangular in plan with large projecting gabled bays and small projecting porches to the southwest half; the addition of the rear extension has created a more square but still irregular footprint.

The main entrance occupies the south face of the left porch and consists of a shouldered doorway containing a timber sheeted door with decorative strap hinges. The doorway's original sandstone dressings are now covered with smooth cement render, though the shoulder blocks and lintel remain exposed. The lintel features a moulded panel inscribed 'Boys' in Blackletter style script, indicating this was formerly the entrance to the boys' school. Above the lintel, the gable is built in brick. The east face of the porch is constructed in roughly squared galetted basalt rubble with smooth cement render quoins. A small narrow flat-arch window with a two-pane timber frame, brick dressings and stone cill is set into this face.

The large gabled bay immediately to the right of the porch features 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 contains a mullioned and transomed timber frame with margin panes. The outer windows have similar frames without the mullion, each with a stone cill and stone lintel with bevelled reveal. Close to the apex of the gable, above the central window, stands a decorative sandstone panel inscribed '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 a bell.

Immediately to the right of the large gabled bay is the much smaller and irregular gable of the second porch, finished similarly to the larger gable and containing a narrow flat-arch window with three-pane timber frame, brick dressings and stone cill. The north face of this porch features a flat-arch doorway with a timber sheeted door, brick dressings and a sandstone lintel inscribed 'Girls' in the same Blackletter style as the other doorway.

The right half of the southeast elevation is finished in rubble and brick as the porch and contains three evenly-spaced flat-arch roughly square windows with replacement timber casement frames similar in style to those on the gabled bay.

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

The west elevation comprises the large circa 1930 brick extension to the left and centre, with the original section's gable to the right. On the left of the extension is a flat-arch doorway with plain timber sheeted door and concrete lintel, accessed by concrete steps with metal handrail. To its right is a flat-arch window with timber frame similar to those on the southeast elevation, concrete cill and lintel. Further right is a narrower window of similar construction, and then another doorway as before. To the far right, the original section's gable is finished in roughcast and contains two tall narrow windows similar to the outer windows on the large southeast gable. This gable is now cut across by the aforementioned projection. The projection's southernmost (boiler house) portion has a flat-arch doorway on its west face with plain timber sheeted door. The central and northernmost portions each have a flat-arch window on their west faces with concrete cills; the northern window has a timber frame similar to most previous windows, whilst the central window has a plain single-pane timber frame.

The north elevation consists of two gables: that of the original building to the left and that of the extension to the right. The original gable is finished as the southeast elevation and contains a similar three-window grouping, although the brick dressings around the central window appear to have been replaced at some stage. Brick patching above and below this window suggests further alterations, though the hue and size of the brick suggests either very early replacement or original features. The extension gable is in brick and contains a single window similar to the central window on the previous gable, but with a shallow segmental head. All windows are now replacements executed in the style of the originals as of 27 January 2006.

The building is surrounded by a tarmac yard enclosed from the footpath by wire fence, hedge and brick wall. A vehicle gateway pierces the brick wall to the south. South of the yard stands an L-shaped single-storey gabled brick dwelling house with attached outbuilding, believed built around 1910 as the caretaker's residence. A metal footbridge dating to around 1970 spans Seagoe Road directly to the east of the former school.