Orange Hall, 2 Stonard Street, Moneymore, Magherafelt, Co Londonderry, BT45 7PN

Orange Hall, Moneymore

A fine late Georgian building erected in 1820 by the Drapers Company as a school on the Lancaster method of teaching. It stands prominently at the southern end of Moneymore High Street, occupying the former site of a 17th-century castle and bawn which was demolished around 1760. When the school foundations were being sunk, excavations revealed old foundation walls of immense thickness and human bones, indicating the castle's earlier presence.

The building comprises a 2-storey central block with a hipped roof and natural slate covering, flanked by two single-storey gabled lateral blocks linked to the central block by narrow entrances. The composition is boldly symmetrical in simple late Georgian form, making an excellent visual terminus to the High Street.

The central block is 3 bays wide. The ground floor originally contained three 16-pane double-hung sliding sash windows with smooth architrave surrounds in segmented-headed openings; these have been temporarily filled with painted blanks since bomb damage in the 1980s. The first floor has similar but shorter windows. The walls are smooth rendered and painted with painted rusticated quoins and a plaster plinth. A shallow overhang with half-round gutter runs beneath the natural slated hipped roof, which carries ridge and hip tiles. A gable chimney is centrally placed on the west side.

Each lateral block is pedimented and 2 bays wide, containing two large segmented-headed windows of 56 panes each with a high cill line and smooth band architrave. The walls are smooth rendered and painted with rusticated painted quoins and a high plinth reflecting the fall in ground level. Each pediment displays a roundel in plaster: the eastern one contains a ladder symbol and the western one a five-pointed star. Tall chimney stacks rise on the inner sides of each lateral block. The roofs are covered in natural slates with ridge tiles.

The central and lateral blocks are connected by narrow entrances containing timber-sheeted doors, each with a margined 3-pane radial fanlight. The plasterwork around these entrances is rusticated with simulated voussoirs. Five steps ascend to each door, flanked by low walls, with a railed narrow area in front of the building. Each long wall of the lateral blocks has three 56-pane segmental-headed windows asymmetrically placed, similar to those on the main façade.

The rear elevations of the central and lateral blocks are largely devoid of windows except for a door and a modern inserted ground-floor window. The walls are roughcast rendered and unpainted. A small flat-roof extension has been added to the gable of the western block, and a small lean-to roofed extension to the eastern block. It is assumed there were originally windows to the rear of the central block, now built up.

The building was originally planned on the Lancaster method of teaching. When it later came under the National Board of Education, the single spaces were divided in two by sliding folding partitions, with boys occupying one wing and girls the other. The playground was divided into separate play spaces for boys and girls, with external toilets. A separate yard was provided for the master and mistress. The school ceased activities in the early 1950s. The Orange Order acquired the building in the mid-1950s and now uses it as a hall.

Behind the building lies the former schoolyard, now a single concreted space but originally divided into several distinct areas. It is surrounded on three sides by a random rubble stone wall. To the south stands a large shed with similar stone walls.

The building is similar in plan and composition to the school erected by the Fishmongers Company in Ballykelly in 1830. The extent of listing includes the hall, boundary walls, and railings.