St John’s School, Bay Road, Carnlough, Ballymena, Co Antrim

St John's School, Bay Road, Carnlough

A single-storey T-shaped building with hipped roofs surmounted by a bell turret. The main front elevation faces south, with twin entrances in the rear return facing east and west.

The south elevation is symmetrical, containing six regularly spaced windows. The roof is laid in Bangor blue slates in regular courses, with decorative iron finials to each end of the main ridge. Two gabled vents are symmetrically arranged on the roof, with timber fronts featuring arched openings, though some timber louvres are missing; decorative ironwork finials top each gablet. A central lantern on the main ridge is of square plan, comprising four shaped timber posts with arched openings standing on a base with battered faces and carrying a steep pyramidal roof. The base and roof are slated to match the main roof but incorporate some courses of fish-scale slates; a bell hangs within the belfry. Bracketed eaves support the roof, though guttering is now missing.

The walls are lime-rendered and whitened limestone rubble, with render missing below cill level revealing the original stonework. A black painted base contrasts with projecting red brick string courses at cill and transom level, painted. Red sandstone cills, also painted, are set with ventilation holes that now lie open, their grills missing. A shield-shaped stone plaque is set in the centre of the wall above the upper string course, inscribed "Erected A.D. 1872. Rev John Landy P.P."

Windows are currently boarded up, making pane divisions invisible. Each comprises a pair of two-pane timber fixed lights surmounted by a common bottom-hung top vent opening inward, set in raised segmental arched brick block dressings painted to match. The west end of the front block contains one bay with a pair of coupled windows. This section has smooth cement rendered walls, lined and blocked, with string courses and dressings coated in smooth render and red sandstone cills.

The rear of the front block on the west side of the return has a slated roof without vents, walls matching the south front, and a projecting chimney breast rendered through the roof as a red brick stack of battered profile up to mid-point. Plain brick string courses and corbel courses detail the chimney, which retains one original stub pot. One window matches those on the south front, with similar brick dressings and sandstone cill.

The west elevation of the rear return has a lower ridge height, similar eaves without guttering, and one short red brick chimney on the ridge with plain string course and corbel courses and two original stub pots. The walling matches the south front without string courses. Two windows and one doorway in the corner with the front block are present. Window dressings are as before, though the southern window has raised render to the reveals and a concrete cill; its cill is sandstone. The doorway is boarded up, set in raised segmental arched brick block dressings painted to match.

The north end of the return has similar roofing and walling to the west side, with the addition of a rough projecting limestone rubble plinth. Two windows match those on the south front but have flush red brick block dressings painted over, with raised smooth render to reveals and concrete cills. A cast iron downpipe is attached to the wall.

The east elevation of the rear return is similar to the west elevation, except the doorway contains a rectangular timber sheeted door surmounted by a boarded-up segmental arched fanlight with a security grille attached. A ventilation hole below one cill lies open with its grill missing. The rear of the front block on the east side matches the rear on the west side, except a ventilation hole lies open under a cill with its grill missing. The east end of the front block matches the west end.

The building stands within the built-up area of the town, facing onto a lane off the main road but set back within its own grounds. The grounds are entirely surfaced in concrete. The front boundary comprises a hedge on a low rubble stone plinth wall, with an open pedestrian gateway at the centre and an open vehicular entrance to one end. Rendered boundary walls border each side, with a graveyard to one side and a former church to the other; a rubble wall forms the rear boundary. Two link walls—one rendered, the other of concrete blockwork—connect the rear return to a gabled single-storey outbuilding with dry dash rendered walls, corrugated iron roof, and damaged PVC guttering; some openings are boarded up while others contain sheeted timber doors. A modern rendered house stands adjacent to the church, accessed by a gateway from the rear yard.