Gilford Primary School, 41 Castle Hill, Gilford, Co Down, BT63 6HH

Symmetrical detached multi-bay two-storey redbrick school, dated 1933. Rectangular on plan facing south with central two-storey entrance porch and several brown brick extensions to the rear, built c.1960. Located on an elevated urban site on the west side of Castle Hill with parking and playgrounds to the rear and large landscaped garden to the front. Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles and two redbrick chimneystacks. Raised gables to both side elevations and a curvilinear parapet wall to both projecting end bays. Moulded cast-iron guttering supported on exposed rafter feet with cast-iron box hoppers and downpipes. Redbrick walls laid in English garden wall bond with moulded masonry plinth course. Square-headed window openings with painted flush masonry block-and-start surrounds, masonry sills and replacement uPVC windows. Front south elevation is nine windows wide with a full-height shallow breakfront to either end and a central full-height Tudorbethan crenellated projecting entrance porch. The entrance porch is no longer in use and has a decorative masonry oval roundel with hood moulding, coat of arms and raised digits below '1933'. Below the first floor window is a masonry plaque stating: 'CRAIGAVON / PUBLIC ELEMENTARY / & TECHNICAL SCHOOLS'. The porch is framed by diagonal buttresses with off-setts. Gabled west side elevation having four shallow buttresses surmounted by off-setts. Single-storey decorative side entrance porch with crenellated parapet, banded masonry and raised lettering stating: 'GIRLS'. Porch has a square-headed recessed door opening with double-leaf flat-panelled timber doors. The rear elevation is abutted by a flat-roofed two-storey redbrick corridor wing and a series of flat-roofed brown brick accretions added c.1960, including a four-bay double-height brick gym hall with full-height uPVC windows. Gabled east side elevation having four shallow buttresses surmounted by off-setts. Single-storey decorative side entrance porch with crenellated parapet, banded masonry and square-headed recessed door opening with double-leaf flat-panelled timber doors. Setting Located on an elevated urban site on the west side of Castle Hill with parking and playgrounds to the rear and large landscaped garden to the front. Two mid to late twentieth-century detached structures to the northeast also form part of the school complex. Large site enclosed by rubblestone walling having stacked coping with a splayed entrance to the southeast of the front gardens having stone piers with cast capstones and metal gates and railings. To the northeast of the site is a further splayed entrance with metal gates and railings on pebbledash rendered piers and walls providing the principal current entrance to the car park and reception. Roof Natural slate RWG Cast-iron Walling Redbrick Windows UPVC