Wexford Free School

Detached seven-bay single-storey parochial school, built 1824, on a symmetrical plan centred on single-bay two-storey breakfront. Occupied, 1901. Vacant, 1911. Closed, 1965. Adapted to alternative use, 1977. Pyramidal slate roof; hipped slate roofs (wings), terracotta ridge tiles, and cast-iron rainwater goods on timber eaves boards on rendered eaves retaining cast-iron downpipes. Limewashed lime rendered or roughcast walls bellcast over rendered plinth. Elliptical- or round-headed window openings (breakfront) with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing eight-over-eight timber sash windows having interlocking Y-tracery glazing bars. Elliptical- or round-headed window openings (wings) with cut-granite sills, and concealed dressings framing eight-over-eight timber sash windows having interlocking Y-tracery glazing bars. Set in own grounds.

A parochial school representing an important component of the early nineteenth-century built heritage of Wexford with the architectural value of the composition, 'a neat building consisting of a centre and two wings...supported by the trustees of Erasmus Smith's charity and by voluntary contributions' (Lewis 1837 II, 711), confirmed by such attributes as the symmetrical footprint centred on an expressed breakfront; the arcaded profile of the openings with those openings showing Churchwarden glazing patterns; and the pyramidal roof. Having been well maintained, the form and massing survive intact together with substantial quantities of the original fabric, thus upholding the character or integrity of a parochial school making a pleasing, if largely inconspicuous visual statement in Patrick's Square.