Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB24/11/012

Address :
Newtownards Model Primary School Scrabo Road Newtownards Co. Down BT23 4NW

Townland:
Newtownards

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
04/03/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
School

Former Use
School

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
131/15

IG Ref:
J4819 7385

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Owner Category

Education Board

Exterior Description And Setting

Newtownards Model Primary School is one of seven surviving Model Schools built in Ulster from the late 1840s to the late 1860s. The building was designed by Frederick Darley and opened in 1862. The building is a large formal two storey complex and Jacobean in style with slight Italianate influences. It is constructed in Scrabo stone with reddish sandstone dressings, pilasters etc. The roof is gabled and covered in Bangor blue slates and the school is situated to the NW of the Scrabo Road in the SW side of Newtownards. The exterior facade appears to be completely intact and the building as a whole is in excellent condition. The front facade faces SE and is largely symmetrical. There are three main projecting bays, one to the centre and two outer. Between each of the outer bays and the centre is a minor bay which projects only slightly. The central bay contains the main entrance which consists of double timber panelled doors, sidelights encased with plain pilasters, and a stone transom above the door with plain semicircular fanlight above transom. The entrance is topped with a semicircular archivolt with carved keystone. Two either side of the doorway are twin pilasters on tall, plain, bases. Frieze above doorway and pilasters with dentilled cornice above this. The twinned pilasters are carried on to the first floor which has a central (sandstone) mullioned and transomed window with label. Wooden frames to lights. Above all of this is a frieze with ‘National Model School’ carved thereon. Above this frieze is a small central two light window with segmental arch heads and stone mullion, with recessed outer panels. The bay is topped with a shaped gable with decorative pinnacles. To the roof above the central bay is a square tower with tall base and cornice, with a six pane window to each face on the upper half along with outer pilasters. The tower is topped with a curved lead sheeted roof. The two outer bays both have shaped gables with pinnacles, outer ‘pilasters’ with cornicing half way up their length and simply carved panels at their tops. The outer bay to the right (E) is slightly broader than that to the W (with quoins beyond the ‘pilasters’) and projects slightly further. In the centre of each bay is a slightly projecting square, with that to the W two storey and with a mullioned and transomed window to each floor, with that to the E one and a half storey with a larger mullioned and transomed window set an intermediate level. Each square bay is topped with a panelled frieze with cornicing. The outer bay to the E has a small rectangular recess within the shaped gable. The two minor bays project slightly. They are both two storey with a shaped gable with finial. Each has a mullioned and transomed window to the first and ground floors each with labels. The remainder of the facade is filled with four (slightly) recessed bays with shaped parapets with pinnacle. Each of these bays has a mullioned and transomed window to the ground and first floors. The main SW facade is slightly shorter than the front facade and belongs to a ‘return’-like wing. The SW facade repeats the style and detailing of the front with a slightly projecting centre bay much like the minor bays to the front. There are three windows to each floor to either side of this bay. The short NE facade is largely made up a projecting bay, again much like the minor bays to the front but with much larger window to the ground floor and a much smaller first floor window. The rear facade is much is largely devoid of decoration and has mainly Georgian paned sash windows and a fire escape like walkway to the side at first floor level. To the E side of the rear facade is a long single storey gabled return, also in sandstone, but largely plain with sash windows as rear of main building. Stretching from the NE facade of this return is another long single storey wing, much as the return itself. To the NW of this wing are two relatively recently built brick building with gabled roofs with covered (but open) ‘walkways’ stretching between the original and the modern buildings. To the gable end of the SW facade there is a single storey gabled section which continues along the NE facade. (This section once served as the coal house etc.). There is a high wall (in matching sandstone) stretching between this former cola house and the SW facade of the long single storey rear return .The roofs of all sections of this building are gabled and have Bangor blue slates with sandstone chimney stacks with tall decorative sandstone pots. Sandstone parapets. Cast iron rw goods.

Architects

Darley, Frederick

Historical Information

As their name suggests, Model Schools were intended as institutions of education which would set the standards for other schools to follow. They were a product of the education reforms of the 1830s, which as well as bringing the National Schools into being, also recommended the setting up of ‘Model’ schools in each county in Ireland for ‘the promotion of united (i.e. integrated) education; improved methods of literary and scientific education; and the training of teachers’. Each model was to contain departments of elementary education and science, with male and female schools. Workrooms were also to be attached for manual instruction, and it was proposed that each school should be provided with a Model Farm. Quarters were also to be included for masters and mistresses as well as trainee teachers. In 1837, however, it was decided to establish 25 ‘school’ districts rather than 32 county districts. Between the late 1840s and late 1860s 28 Model Schools were built, half of them in Ulster, all architecturally a distinct cut above local National Schools. The programme was abandoned in 1870, assailed by the Catholic hierarchy for its secular outlook and politicians for its cost and failure to produce enough new teachers. Thereafter the already extant ‘Models’ became conventional schools. Newtownards Model School was built in 1862 on land granted by the Marquis of Londonderry five years previously. The total construction costs amounted to the £10,394 16s 3d, the second most expensive of the Ulster Models. The architect was Frederick Darley, who had been responsible for the design of four previous Model Schools in the province including that at Belfast, which was also Jacobean in inspiration References- Primary sources 1 PRONI D.654 Londonderry Papers. Secondary sources 1 E.A.M. Hanna ‘The Newtownards Model School in the nineteenth century’ in Ards Historical Society publication No.2 (Newtownards 1980), p.22. 2 Robin Wylie 'Ulster Model Schools' (UAHS 1997).

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting

Historic Interest

Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance V. Authorship W. Northern Ireland/International Interest

Evaluation

Large, two storey Model School of 1862 in the Jacobean style, by Frederick Darley. This school with rear single storey sections is constructed in Scrabo sandstone and possesses decorative shaped gables, pinnacles and a mildly Italianate central square tower. The entire facade remains largely untouched, though the interior has witnessed some alteration in layout. Some modern buildings have built to the rear of this site, but these are not prominent enough to diminish the overall effect of the original.

General Comments

Date of Survey

09 April 1998