Former School Master'S House, 23 Chapel Road, Bessbrook, Co.Armagh

Former School Master's House, 23 Chapel Road, Bessbrook, County Armagh

This is a two-storey, three-bay Edwardian former school master's house built around 1906, constructed in local Newry Granodiorite stone with lined cement render dressings. The architect is unknown. The building was extensively renovated in 1997. It sits on a rectangular plan facing north-east onto Chapel Road, with an additional single-storey rear return to the south-west and an attached rendered garage block at its rear west corner.

The house has well-designed proportions and modest detailing, with good quality local stone walling, and retains its Edwardian character. It is of local historical and social importance as the former residence of the schoolmaster of the adjoining St. Malachy's School — a Roman Catholic primary school demolished in the 1980s — the loss of which represents a considerable reduction in the building's group value and setting. The site falls narrowly outside Bessbrook's established conservation area boundary.

Architectural Description

The pitched roof is covered in natural slate with roll-top terracotta clay ridge tiles. Two equally spaced, cement-rendered and lined mid-ridge square-section chimneys each carry four buff clay pots. The front elevation has flush eaves with a dressed granite corbel course and cast iron ogee guttering discharging to circular-section downpipes. Side elevations have projecting eaves with a painted sheeted timber soffit and painted timber fascia. The walling throughout is generally squared, rock-faced Newry Granodiorite brought to courses. Decorative stepped lined cement render door and window surrounds have bevelled edges; there are stepped dressed granite quoins and stone cills. Windows are typically square-headed double-hung 1/1 sliding timber sash windows with horns.

Front (North-East) Elevation

The principal elevation is symmetrical, with a regular fenestration pattern. A narrowly recessed central doorcase is flanked by one window on either side. The segmental arched door opening has a decorative timber frame with a three-part mullioned fanlight, panelled and glazed side lights, and a four-panelled painted timber door with modern polished metal furniture, opening onto two concrete steps with concrete dwarf walling to the cheeks. The first floor has three reduced-height windows aligned with the ground floor openings.

South-East (Side) Elevation

This side elevation faces south-east and retains original stone walling with projecting eaves to the gable. There is a single window to the north-east at ground floor level. Some cement strap-work pointing is visible at ground floor level.

South-West (Rear) Elevation

The rear elevation consists of a two-storey three-bay stone-built block. At first floor level there are three equally spaced windows of differing cill heights. At ground floor level, painted timber patio doors with a square-headed fanlight and multiple glazed sections sit in line below one of the first floor windows to the south-east. An attached single-storey pitched-roof block to the south-west has a paired timber sash window. A further monopitched rough-cast cement-rendered block attached to the west corner has a two-part uPVC casement window to its south-west elevation.

North-West (Side) Elevation

This elevation consists of original stone walling with projecting eaves to the gable of the two-storey block, with a single window opening to the south-west at ground floor level. From the south-west of the two-storey block, a single-storey block is set back slightly and extends south-west; it has stone walling and a panelled painted timber door with four glazed sections to its upper half. A monopitched garage block projects west from the single-storey block and has a set of painted sheeted timber garage doors to its north-east elevation, opening onto a paved drive leading north-east to Chapel Road.

Materials

The roof is natural slate. Rainwater goods are cast iron. Walling is Newry Granodiorite. Windows are timber sash.

Setting

The house sits within private grounds enclosed by random-coursed rock-faced stone boundary walling with half-round reconstituted stone coping and mature hedging to the interior. The site is bounded to the north-east by Chapel Road, with Bessbrook Lake on the north-east side of the road, and to the south-east by a road leading to a private housing estate to the south-west. The private garden of the neighbouring dwelling, Knockdonagh, lies to the north-west. A set of painted metal scrollwork vehicular gates, hung on square-section pillars of squared granite blocks with reconstituted stone pyramidal caps, lead from Chapel Road to a private paved drive. The drive leads south-west to the front of the dwelling and to the monopitched garage block at the rear of the north-west elevation. French doors at the rear of the two-storey block open onto a paved patio with a painted concrete balustrade and a lawn garden to the south-west. The former school house to the south-east is now demolished and its site is crossed by a public road leading to a private housing estate.

Historical Background

No. 23 Chapel Road was built around 1906 as the residence of the schoolmaster of the adjoining St. Malachy's School, a Roman Catholic national school. Both the school and the schoolmaster's house are recorded on the 1906 Ordnance Survey Town Plan, and Annual Revisions confirm they were in place by 1910. The architect of the house is not known.

The building was constructed of Newry Granodiorite from a local quarry — the same high-quality granite used in the construction of Manchester Town Hall and the great steps of St. George's Hall in Liverpool.

Valuation records note that St. Malachy's School was administered under the National School System and valued at £16 and 10 shillings, while the neighbouring schoolmaster's house was valued at £10 and 10 shillings and was initially leased by the Trustees of the National School to a Mr. James Mulligan. The 1911 Census of Ireland recorded Mulligan as a National Schoolteacher living at the property with his wife and eleven children; two of his daughters were employed at the school as monitors. The census building return described the house as a second-class dwelling with eight inhabited rooms.

By the First General Revaluation of Property in Northern Ireland (1936–57), Mulligan had vacated and Patrick Fearon was recorded as the new resident schoolmaster, with the building's valuation increased to £18. Fearon remained in occupation through to the end of the Second General Revaluation (1956–72), by which time the value had risen to £30. St. Malachy's School — known in the mid-20th century as St. Malachy's Boys' Primary School — was demolished in the 1980s.

The former schoolmaster's house was listed in 1989, described at that time as a detached two-storey double-fronted house built of granite, quarry-faced and brought to courses. The extensive renovation carried out in 1997 included re-slating the roof in natural slate, installing cast iron rainwater goods, and fitting new sliding sash window frames and a new entrance door.