Survey Data
Reg No
22816053
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Original Use
School
Date
1840 - 1845
Coordinates
258110, 101901
Date Recorded
08/10/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Archival Description [Demolished ----]: Detached five-bay two-storey national school, opened 1842, on a U-shaped plan with single-bay two-storey projecting end bays. Reopened, 1867. Disused, 2003. Hipped slate roof on a U-shaped plan with terracotta ridge tiles, rendered chimney stacks having corbelled stepped capping, and remains of cast-iron rainwater goods on rendered stepped eaves with remains of cast-iron downpipes. Rendered, ruled and lined walls with rendered quoins to corners centred on cut-limestone plaque. Square-headed window openings with concrete sills, and concealed dressings with two-over-two timber sash windows now boarded up. Set back from line of street.
Appraisal
Archival Appraisal [Demolished ----]: A national school erected under the aegis of Reverend Nicholas Cantwell (d. 1875) representing an important component of the nineteenth-century built heritage of Tramore with the architectural value of the composition confirmed by such attributes as the compact symmetrical footprint; and the uniform or near uniform proportions of the openings on each floor. A prolonged period of neglect notwithstanding, the form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, both to the exterior and to the utilitarian interior, thus upholding much of the character or integrity of a national school making a pleasing, if increasingly forlorn visual statement in an urban street scene. NOTE: Reverend Cantwell originally invited the Christian Brothers to teach at the national school but the Superior General declined as the institute had severed all contact with the Commissioners for National Education owing to restrictions placed on religious instruction. The Christian Brothers eventually established a community in Tramore in 1867 when William Carroll (----) bequeathed £2,000 'to establish a poor school and monastery of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in Tramore'. A plaque (1993) commemorates 'the Christian Brothers 126 years of devoted service to education in Tramore 1867-1993'.