Jackson Charity School, 10-14 Church Road, Forkhill, Co Armagh, BT35 9SX

Jackson Charity School, Church Road, Forkhill

This is a symmetrical two-storey, three-bay schoolhouse with a single-storey terrace of houses adjoining its left gable, dating from the early 19th century (1800–1819). The building fronts directly onto Church Road, running north to south along its western side.

The main schoolhouse has a pitched natural slate roof with coursed slates and concrete verges. Cement-rendered chimneys rise from each gable, each carrying two decorative tapering square pots. The principal elevation faces east towards the road and is symmetrically arranged: the central bay contains a tongue-and-groove sheeted door with a 2x3 fixed-pane stone-cilled window above it; the flanking bays each have a window at ground and first-floor level, with the upper windows being top-hung casements. A raised stepped parapet runs along the centre of this front elevation. The walls are cement-rendered with stepped stucco quoins to the façade and a slightly advanced base course. Half-round plastic rainwater goods sit on slightly advanced rendered eaves.

The rear elevation is complex, with single-storey returns abutting the left and central bays and a full-height return projecting beyond the right gable. The exposed central section has a 2x3 top-hung casement window with a modern metal security grille. The left return has a pitched natural slate roof with a brick chimney, lime-rendered rubble stone walls, a door opening and timber-framed window to its western face, and an infilled window opening to its cheek. The central lean-to return has a monopitched artificial slate roof with timber bargeboard and an infilled window opening. The right return is two-storey with a hipped natural slate roof; its western elevation has a 2x3 fixed timber window with stone cill and security grille at ground floor, whilst its right cheek shows a 2x3 top-hung casement at first floor.

The single-storey terrace to the left gable has been refurbished as two dwellings. Both have pitched natural slate roofs fronting the road with half-round plastic rainwater goods and three cement-rendered chimneys. The road façade is 15 openings wide, with openings 1–8 serving one dwelling and 9–15 the other. Doors into each dwelling are modern glazed timber, positioned in openings 3 and 11. All windows are modern top-hung timber casements. The walls are pebble-dashed with smooth rendered base course. The rear elevation has an artificial slate roof with smooth cement-rendered walls and modern windows with concrete cills, including at least one lean-to addition. At the extreme left end is a garage with lime-rendered and whitewashed granite rubble walls; its front face has a pair of tongue-and-groove sheeted doors, and a fixed 2x4 metal-framed window with concrete cill is set in the left gable.

Historical Context

According to the Ordnance Survey Memoir of 1837, this building was erected as a school associated with the Church of Ireland, with construction expenses paid by the late Richard Jackson. By his will, Jackson endowed an annual sum of £350 to support schools on his estate. The memoir records that the male school accommodated 130 pupils (80 Protestant, 50 Catholic), taught by a Protestant master receiving £40 per annum from Jackson's fund. The female department had 84 girls (25 Protestant, 59 Catholic), taught by a Methodist mistress receiving £20 annually. An infant department served 65 pupils (15 Protestant, 50 Catholic) under a Protestant mistress receiving £15 per annum. Samuel Lewis, writing in 1837, noted that Richard Jackson, who died in 1787, endowed no fewer than seven schools in the vicinity of Forkhill through the proceeds of his will. The First Valuation book of 1836 identifies the two-storey end block as the main school building and the one-storey houses as teachers' dwellings, female school, and car house. According to a field card dated April 1970, the two-storey section had become or served as the boardroom of the charity by that time.