Charley Memorial Primary School, 141 Ballyskeagh Road, Dunmurry, County Antrim, BT17 9LL

Charley Memorial Primary School is a single-storey, two-bay late Victorian primary school, dated 1892, located on the north side of Ballyskeagh Road in the townland of Drumbeg, approximately half a mile west of St Patrick's Church. Originally built to a cross-plan form, the building was enlarged at the rear and side during the early 20th century, and again more substantially in 1937. It sits within the Drumbeg Area of Village Character and forms part of a small group of historic buildings set against an extensive rural landscape beyond.

EXTERIOR

The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged across two matching bays, each comprising a large double-width window flanked by two single-width windows, with quoins to either side. The walling is finished in ruled-and-lined render with rusticated long-and-short quoins throughout. The roof to the front pitch is covered in natural slate, with artificial slate to the rear, and is finished with terracotta ridge tiles, timber moulded bargeboards, timber sheeted soffits, and exposed timber rafter ends at eaves level. Rainwater goods have been replaced throughout with extruded metal. A panelled smooth-rendered chimney with a moulded cornice and terracotta pots rises from the roofline. Windows are steel-framed casement and pivot type with rectangular cills; external doors are replacements throughout.

A plaque on the wall of the left gable reads: "CHARLEY MEMORIAL SCHOOL, ERECTED IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM CHARLEY D.L. OF SEYMOUR HILL BY HIS SISTERS A.J. STEVENSON & EMILY CHARLEY, 1892." The south cheek of the left gable has a single door to the right and a window to the left; the gable face itself has a single door to the left; and the north cheek has a single window left of centre. The left gable is abutted by a single-bay, subservient gable-ended block.

The rear elevation is fully abutted by a single-storey flat-roofed extension comprising several projecting bays with modern entrance doors to the west and matching steel-framed windows throughout. A single existing high-level window remains to the left of this elevation. The right gable is abutted by a slightly recessed bay with a lower ridge level. The south cheek of this right section has four uniformly arranged windows; the west gable is blank; the north cheek has a window to the left and a high-level window to the right, situated above a diminished single-storey flat-roof abutment which incorporates a variety of windows and a projecting entrance porch.

The large expanse of uniformly arranged 20th-century fenestration gives the building a distinct overall appearance.

SETTING

Entry to the site is through wrought-iron interlacing hooped gates with cast-iron piers, set above a low brick wall with coping and matching iron railings; a matching pedestrian gate is also provided. A short, tree-lined drive leads to a tarmac car park at the front of the building. Temporary mobile accommodation is located to the left. The rear of the site includes a small playground with a grass area extending northward, bounded by hedgerows and trees.

To the east of the school stands the former schoolmaster's house: a two-storey, three-bay symmetrical dwelling matching the school in style and detail, though modified to the rear with a single-storey return and fitted with uPVC replacement windows. It has its own matching entrance gates.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The school was erected in 1892 at the sole expense of Emily Charley (1837–1917) and her sister Anne Jane Stevenson (1822–1904), at a total construction cost of £800, in memory of their brother William Charley, Deputy Lieutenant, of Seymour Hill. The building first appears on the third-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–02, depicted in a cross-plan form that included a south-projecting porch, accessed by a path from Ballyskeagh Road.

The 1901 Census records that Charley Memorial School operated under the National School system and was let by Emily Charley. The two-storey house to the east of the school — recorded as "Oakmount" on the fourth-edition Ordnance Survey map of 1920–21 — was at that time occupied by a Ms Margaret Gardner and her children, one of whom, Miss Emily Gardiner, was recorded as a National Schools Teacher. Ulster Towns Directories between 1901 and 1918 list the occupants of Oakmount House as the "Misses Gardiners," employed as dressmakers, which leaves some ambiguity as to whether the house was formally associated with the school. The directories for 1910 and 1918 record the school's principal as Mr Robert Gurd, who served from 1892 to 1931, assisted by a Ms Harrison in 1910 and a Ms Gilmore in 1918.

In 1937 the school was substantially reconstructed into its current layout by the architects Blackwood and Jury, who operated from premises in Donegall Place, Belfast between approximately 1905 and 1968 and were responsible for building or renovating a number of schools and church buildings throughout Ulster. At this time, the flat-roofed extension abutting the north elevation was added, as was the extension to the east gable. The south-projecting porch, visible in early class photographs, was removed when the entrance was relocated to the west side of the building. The original lattice casement glazing was also replaced with the current steel-framed windows.

The Charley family had resided in Dunmurry for over 200 years, having first come to Ulster in the 18th century after supporting the failed Jacobite Rebellion of 1715. During the 18th century the family experimented with weaving techniques, and in 1824 John Charley founded J. & W. Charley and Co., a highly successful linen firm — established with his brother William — which supplied luxury goods and carried out royal commissions. William Charley died in 1838, leaving his business and Seymour House to his son William Charley Junior. William Charley Junior's sisters, Anne Jane and Emily, resided at Huntley House and were known for their charitable generosity to local schools and churches. Following their brother's death in 1890, they built the Charley Memorial School; they later constructed the Stevenson Memorial School in 1899 (in memory of Anne Jane's late husband) and a further school in Woodbourne shortly afterwards.

The school celebrated its centenary in 1992, when the Venerable William Barnett, Archdeacon of Down, preached the anniversary memorial service at St Patrick's Church in Drumbeg. In 2007 it was announced that the school would close; it duly closed in August of that year and has remained vacant since. The adjoining former schoolmaster's house continues to be occupied.