5 Sion Terrace,

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Mid-terrace three-bay two-storey house, built 1897, third from left in a terrace of seven located to the east side of Church Square. Rectangular-on-plan with one-and-a-half-storey gabled return to rear abutted at right by single-storey flat-roofed extension; single-storey flat-roofed extension to east.

Roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles over corbelled eaves course; yellow brick corbelled chimney to party walls and return; two rooflights to east pitch and three to west pitch. Walls are painted roughcast over smooth banded plinth; return is smooth rendered. Windows are square-headed timber-framed 1/1 sliding sashes in smooth reveals; all have painted masonry sills.

Principal elevation faces east and contains, at centre, round-arched-headed opening with stepped painted brick surround containing recessed replacement four-panelled timber entrance door with transom light (secondary door at left); dipartite window with timber mullions at ground floor left; ground floor right abutted by extension containing dipartite window; three windows at first floor.

South gable is abutted by HB10/07/010F.

West elevation is abutted at centre by gabled return; exposed sections at left and right contain single window at first floor. North elevation of gable contains two windows at first floor; single window and door at ground floor; west gable blank; south elevation contains single window; abutted at ground floor by single storey extension containing vertically-sheeted timber door and uPVC casement window to west elevation.

North gable is abutted by HB10/07/010D.

House is directly accessed from street at east. Roughcast boundary wall with concrete coping encloses yard to rear; access through square-headed vertically-sheeted timber door. Garden to across path to rear bounded by hedging.

Roof Natural slate
Walling Roughcast
Windows Replacement square-headed timber-framed 1/1 sliding sash
RWG Cast-iron half-round gutters and round downpipes

Historical information

Sion Mills was a company-owned town established by Herdman & Co., a flax spinning mill, and was run by the Herdman family as a model village for their workers and village maintenance staff, who all had an option for healthcare, until the village was privatised in the mid 1960s when the mills needed to raise capital during a slump in the linen industry.

The terrace is first shown on the third edition of the OS Map in 1905.

Annual Revisions (1860-1923) date No. 4 from 1880, No. 5 from 1897, and Nos. 6 and 7 from 1898. Nos. 1-3 appear to be somewhat earlier.

The houses are all described as “house, offices and small garden,” and are leased from J&E Herdman. Nos 1-4 are valued at £610s, No 5 at £7, increased to £15 in 1898 and Nos 6-7 at £8.10s.

According to Ferguson, “the village was originally built consisting of simple, but well-built, one-storey terraced cottages to house the workers and to save them having to walk miles to work. At the beginning of the [twentieth] century, when Captain Ricardo was the Director in charge of personnel and welfare, including the village, he had second storeys added to many of the houses as more workers were needed when the boom in the linen trade started in 1903 and this enabled the villagers to take in lodgers during the week” (Ferguson, p.91).

Company housing did not accommodate all the workers, but for those who did live in the village, the Herdman’s social experiment in Sion Mills was along the lines of Robert Owen’s in New Lanark. (Ferguson, p.91). “Until the 1960s, the Mill trained and employed people to cover all the necessary trades needed to maintain and repair the village houses and surround as well as the Mill and its machinery, and the waterpower system. The householders were charged for rent and gas, paid per fortnight and raised occasionally. Over the early years the Herdmans provided a shop with very good fair prices and a dispensary. Workers paid a small payment from their wages, one penny per week in the early days – 6d. in the 1940s – towards health care and the Mill paid a Doctor and a mill nurse. The Herdmans also built a Doctor’s house and surgery in the Mill Lane at the end of the 19th century. The village had its own fire service and fire engine.” (Ferguson, p.95).

In an effort to raise capital, the company sold off village houses in the early 1960s for prices ranging “from £60 for smallest to £120 for two-storey houses” (Herdman, p.123).

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/6/10/1 -First Edition OS Map (1832-33)
2. PRONI OS/6/6/10/2 -Second Edition OS Map (1855)
3. PRONI OS/6/6/10/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1905)
4. PRONI VAL/12/E/182/1 -Town Plan of Sion Mills (1866-1898)
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/42/1A-F -Valuation Revisions (1860-1923)
6. PRONI VAL/2A/6/9A -Griffith’s Valuation (1858)
7. PRONI VAL/12/E/182/1 -Town Plan of Sion Mills(1866-1898)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/42/1A-F -Valuation Revisions (1860-1923)

Secondary Sources

1. Bence-Jones, Mark. “A Guide to Irish Country Houses.” Second Revised Edition.
2. Herdman, Rex. “Recollections of Rex Herdman.” In Ferguson, Celia, ed. “The Herdmans and Sion Mills, 1835-2005: Book One – The Early Years: A Collection of Letters, Photographs & Extracts from Documents and Books of Interest.” (Sion Mills, Co. Tyrone: Sion Mills Building Preservation Trust, 2005.), p.123.
3. Ferguson, Celia, ed. “The Herdmans and Sion Mills, 1835-2005: Book One – The Early Years: A Collection of Letters, Photographs & Extracts from Documents and Books of Interest.” Sion Mills, Co. Tyrone: Sion Mills Building Preservation Trust, 2005.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Impressive and well proportioned mid-terrace two-bay two-storey house, built c.1897, third from left in a terrace of seven located to the east side of Church Square. Part of the rest of the terrace, has been modernised through recent years resulting in some loss of unity within the group, for example, the replacement of some windows and doors. Despite this, many features remain, such as original yellow brick chimneys and the interior layouts of these simply detailed dwellings have remained largely intact. The terrace, built as worker’s dwellings by Herdman & Co, remain an important architectural group within the model village of Sion Mills and enjoy a good setting looking out to Church Square.

General comments

Previoulsy recorded as HB10/07/010