Sion Mills Recreation Club

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached multi-bay two-storey stone and applied timber frame former Working Mens' Institute, built c.1895, now known as Sion Mills Recreational Club. Rectangular on plan, facing east on the west side of Melmount Road with external stone stair to south gable and flat-roofed rear extension.

Pitched terracotta tiled roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles, sprocketed eaves with exposed rafter feet and timber bargeboards to the gables. Steel rainwater goods to rafter feet. Random coursed rock-faced sandstone ashlar walling to ground floor and staircase, with continuous moulded timber course and timber-framed to upper floor with pebbledash rendered panels.

Symmetrical multi-bay two-storey front elevation, four square-headed window openings to ground floor with stone relieving arches and timber casement windows with lead-lined timber sills; series of tripartite timber casement windows to first floor with leaded glazing and some steel casements. To the centre of the front elevation is a large redbrick chimneystack laid in Flemish bond, projecting beyond the stone wall as a narrow flue to the ground floor, corbelled out in redbrick and forming a large blind breakfront to the first floor before narrowing again as a chimney above the roof.

South gable is pebbledash rendered above ground floor and is abutted by an external stone staircase, built on a T-plan in random course rock-faced sandstone ashlar with tooled stone ashlar coping and concrete steps. Steps lead to a single door opening to the first floor with vertically-sheeted timber door. Below the steps at ground floor level is a round-headed door opening with voussoired stone arch and vertically-sheeted timber door.

Rear elevation is abutted by a large flat-roofed extension having decorative single-pitched terracotta tiled canopy. Ten tripartite windows with leaded lights are visible to the first floor with the continuous timber sill and timber framed wall below.

Gable-ended north elevation has a large landscape window opening to both floors with timber casement windows having leaded lights. Random coursed rock-faced sandstone ashlar walling to ground floor with continuous moulded timber course and elaborate timber frame and pebbledash rendered finish to first floor and gable with overhanging eaves and carved timber barge-board.

Set back from the road with a paved front area enclosed by a low rubblestone wall with stacked coping, continued to the north of the site forming the boundary between the Club and the Church (HB10/07/003). To the centre of this front area is a semi-circular concrete paved area open to the street with low concrete block wall and war memorial stone. To the rear is a small single-storey gable-fronted structure with plaque stating..'Telephone Exchange'.

Roof Terracotta tiles
Walling Rock-faced sandstone /applied timber-frame and pebbledash render panels
Windows Original timber casement
Rainwater goods Metal

Historical information

The Institute was built in 1895 to designs by W. F. Unsworth by the proprietors of Sion Mills, Messrs. Herdman. The Herdmans believed in temperance for their workers and until 1896, when they lost a court case, there was no public house in Sion Mills village. The provision of the Working Mens Institute appears to have sprung from the desire to provide ‘improvement and recreation’ for the Mill workers, without resort to the sale of alcohol. (www.sionmills.org; Irish Builder, 1 July 1895)

The ‘Institute’ is captioned on the third edition OS map of 1905. It is recorded in Annual Revisions for the first time in 1906 and valued at £10. It is described as a ‘Working Mens’ Institute’ occupied by the ‘Committee of Working Mens’ Institutes’ and leased from Herdman Company.

The Irish Builder of 1 July 1895 carries an effusive full-page article on the newly-opened Institute under the headline “The New Institute, Sion Mills, County Tyrone – Friendly Relationships between Employers and their Workers”. The article describes the building in great detail and in glowing terms as a “thoroughly picturesque work of art” and goes on to praise the Herdmans for their generosity, saying that the new institute “would be a lasting monument…of [their] goodness and kindness.” The Institute comprises a billiard room on the ground floor and a reading room/library on the first floor. The article names W.F. Unsworth as the architect and Joseph Ballantine of Londonderry as the contractor. (p.157)

Valuer’s notebooks of 1934 record the institute as consisting of two billiard rooms and two outbuildings. The value is raised from £10 to £20 and a note reads, “Two billiard tables on ground floor. Charges for use:- 2d per hour for one and 3d per hour for other. One table on first floor. Charge for use:- 4d per hour” At an unknown date the occupiers have been changed to “Sion Mills Amalgamated Sports Club” and the description to “Hall”.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/10/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1905)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/10/4 -Fourth Edition OS Map (1951)
3. PRONI VAL/12/E/182/1 -Town plan of Sion Mills (1866-1898)
4. PRONI VAL/12/E/182/2/1 -Town plan of Sion Mills (1898-1908)
5. PRONI VAL/12/E/182/2 -Town plan of Sion Mills (1908-c.1935)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/42/1A-F -Valuation Revisions (1860-1923)
7. The Irish Builder Vol 37, 1 July 1895, p.157
8. PRONI VAL/3/D/7/10BB/2 – Valuers RV Binders (1933-57)

Secondary Sources

www.sionmills.org

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

V. Authorship
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

This symmetrical building displays many features typical of the Arts and Crafts style including applied timber framing, leaded casement windows and a feature chimneystack. While the interior has lost much of its original appearance, the exterior remains intact and constitutes one of the more notable structures in this designed industrial village, contributing to its status as a conservation area. The hall has group value with other listed buildings of similar style in Sion Mills, and is the work of an important architect.