Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB09/09/015

Address :
Ballyronan School, 128 Shore Road Ballyronan Cookstown BT80 0AZ

Townland:
Ballyronan More

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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:
110/01

IG Ref:
H9462 8547

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

This is a detached single-storey former school, now in use as an Orange Hall, built 1856-58 to a design by Robert Young of Belfast. It is long and rectangular in plan with a pitched roof. The ends of the hall form a slight projection to the front and rear elevation, which is gable-ended. There are two single-storey porch projections adjacent, to the left and right of the front elevation. The building is set behind a rendered wall. To the West of the Shore Road within the centre of Ballyronan. The front East elevation is symmetrical and faces onto the Shore Road. It is composed of a gable-end to the left, a single-storey projecting porch, a recessed six-bay central portion, a single-storey projecting porch to the right, and a further gable-end. The end gables contain no openings. There is a blind roundel to each gable at high level. The projecting porches have narrow round-headed windows to the front. Windows are set on painted cut-stone sills with a timber casement window. There is a door to the inner elevation of each porch. The door is square-headed with a timber sheeted door. The central recess is six windows in width. Windows are square-headed. Windows are boarded up. However boarding has been painted into a timber sash pattern. There is a cut-stone datestone to the centre of the elevation inscribed ‘BROTHER T. FORSYTHE L.O.L. 120 MEMORIAL ORANGE HALL. The side South and North elevations are blank. The rear West elevation is skimmed render. It has a single square-headed timber door opening to the centre. External walls are whitewashed roughcast render with a painted rendered and stone plinth. The roof is pitched with natural slate. Rainwater goods are cast-iron. The gable ends to the front elevation have projecting eaves with painted timber corbel brackets. Soffits, verges and fascias are replacement uPVC Setting The Orange Hall is set behind a rendered wall with cut-stone capping. It fronts onto the Shore Road within the centre of Ballyronan. There is a pedestrian gate to the left and right. Gates have raised pillars with finish to match walls. Gates are unpainted wrought iron.

Architects

Young, Robert

Historical Information

This former school house dates from between 1856 and 1858, and is recorded in the valuation book of 1860 as a ‘National School house [with] garden and playground’. It was built by local landowners the Salters’ Company to a design by architect Robert Young of Belfast, and according to James Stevens Curl, constructed at a cost of £464 with S. Crawford the contractor. It replaced two separate female and male schools, which are shown (to the north-east and south of the present site respectively), on the OS map of 1853-56, with the new school itself appearing on the same map (but unmarked). The school seems to have remained operational until at least 1955 and was converted to a hall at some point in later 1970s or 1980s. In its original form, the building possessed two rear returns, probably quarters for the schoolmaster and schoolmistress. The southernmost of these is shown as larger than its northern counterpart on the 1906 OS map, and a photo dating from 1975 shows the former as a two-storey gable-ended section. At some point after this (presumably when the structure was converted to a hall), all of the rear appendages were demolished, the chimneys removed, the paired windows to the front gables and a doorway to the south side blocked, and the interior layout and detailing altered. A decorative ventilation fleche (shown on Young’s original 1856 drawings and on W.A. Green photos of c.1900) had been removed sometime prior to 1975. Primary sources 1 OS maps, 1853-56, 1906, 1928-29, 1975 2 ‘Belfast News-Letter’, 26 May 1856 3 PRONI VAL/12B/34/4A-F Annual valuation revision book, Ballyronan ED, 1860-1929 4 Ulster Museum WAG 907-08 Photographs of Ballyronan, c.1900 5 PRONI VAL/12B/34/24F Annual valuation revision book, Salterstown ED, 1915-29 6 PRONI VAL/3C/6/16 First general revaluation of Northern Ireland, Salterstown ED, 1936-57 7 ‘Belfast Telegraph’, 9 November 1955, p.5 8 HERoNI Photograph of Ballyronan School, 1975 Secondary sources 1 Curl, James Stevens, ‘The Londonderry Plantation, 1609-1914’ (Philimore & Co., 1986) 2 Harron, Paul, ‘Architects of Ulster: Young & MacKenzie - A Transformation Provincial Practice 1850-1960', (Belfast, 2016)

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a detached single-storey former school built 1856-58 to designs by Robert Young, now in use as an Orange Hall, . This is an example of an early nineteenth century school building. The current use as an Orange Hall has resulted in little alteration but window openings have been bricked over and verges and eaves are now clad in uPVC. It is similar to many schools of the era and is not of not of special architectural or historic interest.

General Comments

Date of Survey

15 February 2008