Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB24/02/037

Address :
Ballycran National School 42 Blackstaff Road Ballycran Beg Kircubbin Newtownards Co. Down BT22 1A?

Townland:
Ballycran Beg

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Hall

Former Use
School

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
188/1

IG Ref:
J6197 5926

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Owner Category

Education Board

Exterior Description And Setting

Set within wooded surroundings in the tiny hamlet of Ballycran Beg, Ballycran National School was built in 1874 at the foot of a slight slope, near St. Joseph’s Church. It is a gabled single storey building roughly ‘T’ shaped in plan and constructed in square snecked semi-coursed basalt, with yellow brick ‘in/out’ dressings to doors and windows and as quoins. A small amount of red sandstone has been used for window cills, date stones etc. Gables are finished with projecting timber barge boards. Roofs are pitched with Bangor blue slates, red fire clay ‘coxcomb’ ridge tiles and cast iron rw goods. There are two yellow brick chimneys to the ridges and two which rise from the gutter line on the SW elevation. Windows are generally mullioned and transomed and have segmental arch heads and ‘in/out’ ‘quoin’ dressings in yellow brick and sandstone cills, with the door heads and reveals similarly dressed. Attached to the NE side is a plain rendered toilet block, dating from 1954. A teacher’s residence, built in ‘Swiss cottage’ style, is a short distance to the S of school.

Architects

O'Neil, John

Historical Information

This school was constructed in 1874 to a design by Belfast-based architect, John O'Neill. The building originally had two classrooms with a third added [presumably in the large gable] in 1917, with a toilet block built in 1954. The school closed in 1982 and is now owned by nearby St. Joseph’s church and used occasionally as a church hall. O'Neill, along with his assistant, William Henry Byrne, was responsible for St Joseph's Church itself (completed 1876), whilst he is also thought to have worked on the the former teachers’ residence just to the south - built in 1878 . References- Secondary sources 1 Charlie Murray ‘Ballycran Parish’ in 'Journal of the Upper Ards Historical Society, No.10' (1986), pp. 5-9. 2 Tracey, J.J., 'A dissertation on the buildings of John O'Neill and O'Neill and Byrne Architects, 1862-83', unpublished MA Thesis, QUB, 1987, p.82

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Many gabled, single storey school house of 1874 with basalt rubble façade and yellow brick dressings.

General Comments

More historical info added to PS 2021.02.04

Date of Survey

24 September 1997