Former school house adjacent to Tyrone's Ditches Presbyterian Church Lisnagree Poyntzpass Co. Armagh BT35 6RX

Former Schoolhouse adjacent to Tyrone's Ditches Presbyterian Church, Lisnagree

This is a detached, single-storey former schoolhouse with an L-shaped plan, built originally in 1828 and rebuilt or significantly remodelled around 1850. It stands immediately to the west of Tyrone's Ditches Presbyterian Secession Church at Lisnagree, approximately 4 kilometres south-west of Poyntzpass, County Armagh. The building remained in use as a school until at least the early 1880s, also serving as an important local meeting place, before being converted into a dwelling house and forge around 1900. It is currently unoccupied and used as a store.

Architectural Description

The walls are built of random-coursed, rock-faced local stone with red brick dressings and squared granite cills to all openings. Large square quoin stones mark the corners of the building. The roof is natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, hipped at the north-east end and pitched at the south-west end. A single red brick chimney stack sits approximately at the centre of the plan. All window openings are currently boarded over with sheeted timber on the exterior, though 2-over-2 timber sliding sash windows with single glazing remain visible from the interior. Replacement sheeted timber doors are in place throughout. There are no rainwater goods.

The north-east elevation is four bays wide, with a door opening to each side — the right-hand one now bricked up — and two window openings in the centre. Two stone steps lead up to the left-hand door opening. A placement for a datestone is visible, but the datestone itself is no longer present.

The south-east elevation is the longer, four-bay frontage facing onto Tyrone's Ditches Road towards the church. It has a door opening on the left side, a window and door opening in the middle, and a window opening on the right. The roof is pitched to the left and hipped to the right. A red brick chimney is located to the right of the left-hand door.

The south-west elevation is a blind gable with a pitched roof. The north-west elevation has an advanced section on the left side with a hipped roof and a single window opening to the centre; the right side was obscured by vegetation at the time of survey.

Historical Background

According to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs, the schoolhouse was first built in 1828 in connection with the nearby Tyrone's Ditches seceding meeting house. The congregation itself, originally known as 'Drumbanagher', was established around 1762 on estates belonging to the Close family of Drumbanagher House. It was renamed 'Tyrone's Ditches' from 1765, the date also recorded in the OS Memoirs for the construction of the meeting house, which had a capacity of 400 worshippers (though Donnelly gives a date of 1797 for the current church building). The name 'Tyrone's Ditches' refers to a defensive trench running alongside the site to the west, said to have been cut by Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, during the Nine Years' War of 1594 to 1603.

At the time of the OS Memoirs in 1835, the school had 50 pupils: 40 Protestants and 10 Catholics, comprising 30 males and 20 females. It received financial support of £7 from the Hibernian Society and one penny per week from the scholars. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1835 shows both the Seceding Meeting House and the schoolhouse to its west. The Townland Valuation of around 1836 does not record the schoolhouse, but the footprint changed considerably between the first edition map of 1835 and the second edition of 1860, suggesting the building was at least extended, and possibly entirely rebuilt, during this period. By Griffith's Valuation of 1863, the schoolhouse is grouped with the Presbyterian church and graveyard, with a combined valuation of £20, maintained in the records until 1929.

A government educational census carried out on Thursday 25th June 1868 recorded 23 children present at Tyrone's Ditches school — 13 boys and 10 girls, 21 Presbyterians and 2 from the Church of Ireland. The school was not a National school and remained connected to the neighbouring seceding congregation at that time.

The schoolhouse also served as a significant local gathering place. In January 1881, a dispute between the landlord Maxwell Close, MP for County Armagh, and his tenants prompted a meeting of a considerable number of those tenants at the schoolhouse, described as a very central point within the Close estates. A further meeting planned there to consider the landlord's refusal to reduce rents was cancelled due to fears of unrest, but a disturbance occurred at the school on the night of the cancelled meeting, resulting in the smashing of the schoolhouse windows, as reported in the Newry Reporter.

The school does not appear on the 1906 Ordnance Survey map, indicating closure sometime between 1881 and 1906. By 1911, the building had been converted into a dwelling house and forge, occupied by William Graham, a blacksmith, along with his wife from County Antrim. The dwelling comprised three rooms internally, with a stable, fowl house and forge as outbuildings. According to local historical sources, Billy Graham had served his apprenticeship under blacksmith Bob Loughlin of Poyntzpass and had bid for the old schoolhouse when it came up for sale at auction. He was outbid by a man named Lundy, who nonetheless made the property over to Graham, who repaid him over the following years. Billy went on to raise a large family of seven daughters in the converted building, and remained resident at Lisnagree until at least 1945.

The general revaluation of the 1930s records the former school as a house, forge, outbuildings and garden leased from the Presbyterian church, valued at £3. A valuer's notebook entry from 1933 describes the dwelling as comprising a kitchen and bedroom with cement floors and boarded ceilings. The forge had a plain earthen floor and an open roof. The valuer's plan shows the forge — consisting of a felt roof supported by posts — contained within the re-entrant angle between the dwelling and its return. The return also contained a stable for the forge and a separate stable used by the church.

Alterations and Condition

Several minor changes are evident over the building's lifetime. One of the entrance doorways — likely originally providing separate entrances for boys and girls — was blocked up when the building was converted to residential use. The chimney serving the two fireplaces within the dwelling is no longer present. Joist holes are visible within the stable consistent with a former hay loft. All window openings are currently boarded over on the exterior.

Setting and Significance

The building sits directly alongside the road, facing Tyrone's Ditches Presbyterian Secession Church, in a rural setting surrounded by agricultural land. The north-east façade faces onto a wider portion of road used for car parking. Together, the former schoolhouse and the adjacent church form a neat ensemble that makes a pleasing visual statement in the landscape.

The building retains considerable authenticity in its random-coursed local stonework, red brick dressings, historic plan form and interior detailing. It is a good example of a small rural former schoolhouse of local and social interest, with a well-documented history connecting it to the religious, educational and community life of the area, as well as to the broader history of landlord and tenant relations in late 19th-century Ireland.