Former school house, 79 Bryansford village, Aghacullion, Newcastle, Co Down, BT33 0PT

Former School House, 79 Bryansford village

This single storey former school house dates from around 1823 and is now converted to a dwelling. The building is situated on the north side of the main road running through Bryansford village, near the junction with the Upper Burren Road.

The property has an unusual plan, consisting of a basically rectangular former school house forming the main front section, with a large L-shaped return to the rear. Externally, the building has largely retained its school house appearance.

The front (south-east) façade features a hipped roof porch positioned left of centre, with a multi-pane early to mid 20th century 'Georgian' window to its south-east face and a partly glazed doorway (dating from around 1950) to its north-east. Originally, this porch contained two doorways—one for girls and one for boys. To the left of the porch is a multi-pane window with an upper hopper opener. To the right of the porch are two similar windows, with the one furthest to the right being narrower. The far right portion of the front façade is set back slightly. The south-west elevation comprises the south-west façade of the rear return on the left and the short south-west façade of the main front section on the right. The return façade has three windows of various sizes, all relatively small and with metal frames. The south-west façade of the main section has a window similar to that on the front. The north-east elevation consists of the short north-east façade of the main front section on the left and the exposed north-east façade of the rear return on the right. The short north-east façade of the main front section is gabled and has a single window matching the front. The return façade has two relatively large windows with distinctive geometric lights. The south-east facing gable of this portion of the return has a similar window. The rear elevation comprises exclusively the north-west façade of the return, which has a gable at either end and a flat roofed section in the middle. Both gable ends have recent-looking projecting lean-to bays with modern windows, while a timber sheeted door opens from the flat roofed centre section. This central section may once have been an open yard but now appears to be roofed over, linking the two gabled portions. The façade is finished in rough cast render, unpainted. The roof is hipped and gabled, covered mainly in natural slate. A single rendered chimney stack sits between the main front section and return. Cast iron rainwater goods are present.

The building was originally constructed as a school house. It is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1834 marked as such, though not mentioned in the contemporary Ordnance Survey memoirs, which instead noted the village's other school contained within a row of picturesque houses to the north-east (now numbers 42–50). Slater's Directory of 1856 lists the building as a girls' and infants' school, with 'Infant school' marked on the 1859 Ordnance Survey map. The boys' school at that stage was still in the picturesque house to the north-east, but by 1886 (at least) that house contained an embroidery school, with the boys having transferred to this building. The property appears to have remained a school house until at least 1910.

The 1834 Ordnance Survey map shows that the building was originally cruciform in plan, with the front porch and rear return, which possibly originally contained the teacher's quarters. By 1859 this had altered, with the return appearing on the Ordnance Survey map of that year as L-shaped. This L-shape probably contained an open yard, with a small free-standing gabled building—possibly once a toilet—to the north-east side. The return as it exists today appears to have incorporated both the yard and the free-standing structure, explaining the rear elevation's distinctive arrangement of two gables either side of a flat roofed section.