St Francis Nursing Home 71b Charles Street Portadown BT62 4DB

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two-storey gentleman’s residence of c.1825, latterly part of a nursing home complex and linked to a Modern style building of c.1969, but now disused with some sections partially collapsed.

SETTING Suburban - the building is set within spacious grounds to the west of Charles Street, roughly 1km W of Portadown town centre.

GENERAL The former house consists of a two-storey hipped roof rectangular, rendered, block with full-height gable-ended return to N and lower L-shaped two-storey service wing to E. To the NE, linked to the return, is a quadrangle of former outbuildings (part single and part two-storey) enclosing a yard. To the E the house is joined - via an extensive but relatively narrow two-storey link – to the large Modern style block of c.1969, the scale of the latter dwarfing the original structure. In general both the house and outbuildings have been much altered with little or no original window frames in evidence, the main block and service wing stripped of their slates, the former outbuildings largely roofless and gutted, and the whole much dilapidated and in the process of being reclaimed by nature.

E ELEVATION The original (E) facing front of the house appearsto have been originally symmetrical with a central entrance flanked by single-storey canted bays, and presumably three windows to the upper floor. The whole aspect of this side of the building has been completely altered by the insertion of the link which joins to the 1960s block, however, and is for the most part unreadable with the entrance and upper floor windows all gone, and the bays (particularly that to the N / right) unsympathetically altered. The return to right (N) is utilitarian in appearance and looks as if it may have been largely rebuilt c.1980-90s. It has a small single-storey projection to far left and a small window immediately right of it. The former outbuildings to right (N) again appear to have been completely made over c.1950s-60s with plain render and enlarged / inserted windows with Crittal-type frames.

S ELEVATION The S elevation of the main block preserves something of its original appearance with a uniform row of flat-headed windows to the first floor, however, the pointed arch, stained glass-filled openings to the ground level may be c.1950s-60s alterations, designed to give this side a more ‘ecclesiastical’ look. The service wing to the left is less altered, but roofless and badly decayed.

N ELEVATION This side is utilitarian in appearance. As stated above, the return in particular looks greatly altered (possibly even largely rebuilt) c.1980s-90s. The outbuildings to the NE are similarly much altered, though (again as stated above) the presence of Crittal-type windows suggests that the work here took place c.1950s-60s.

W ELEVATION This elevation consists of of part of the outbuildings to left (N) with a tall rendered wall spanning to the W side of the service wing to the right (S end). The latter section has partially collapsed whilst the outbuilding is smothered in greenery and roofless.

Historical information

A house that appears to equate to the eastern portion of the original section of the present nursing home complex is shown on the OS map of 1835 marked ‘Mount Prospect’. In the valuation book of late 1836 this is recorded as the home of Curran Woodhouse and is noted as a relatively new residence - ‘10 years built’ - with the main block measuring 36ft x 26½ x 18, ‘porches’ (probably the front bays) each of 12 ½ x 4½ x 8 and returns of 27½ x 20 x 13½, 8 x 8½ x 7 and 15½ x 6 x 5½.

Curran Woodhouse (b.1763) was a local grain and coal merchant, and judging from what the above valuation states, he must have constructed Mount Prospect around 1825-26. The property was built on what was then the rural hinterland of Portadown, with grounds stretching from the road that is now Charles Street westwards, a formally laid out garden occupying the land to the rear of the house and road and a much larger strip of ‘parkland’ to the east where unbroken grassland stretched as far as today’s Obins Street. As now, the main drive was to the south-west, which was shared with the neighbouring property to the south, (Woburn Villa, later renamed Corcrain Villa), and at the gate was a small lodge, which remained in use until the early 1900s, but which was ‘ruinous’ by 1922.

Sometime after Curran Woodhouse’s death in 1851 Mount Prospect was acquired by Averell Shillington (1802-97) a Portadown draper and linen manufacturer who later established a weaving factory at Castleisland on the north side of the town. He renamed the house ‘Altavilla’, and in or shortly before 1868 passed (or sold it) to his son, Thomas Shillington (1835-1935). Thomas, who later inherited his father’s ‘Castleisland Linen Company’ and was to serve as a Privy Councillor for Ireland (and subsequently Northern Ireland), had seven children with his wife, Sarah, and it was perhaps because of this that they extended Altavilla to the western side in 1880. In the 1901 census, the 65yr-old Thomas (‘J.P. [and] linen manufacturer’) is recorded as living here with three of his grown-up children, two domestic servants, with the building itself noted as a ‘1st class’ slated dwelling with 14 rooms in use.

The property remained with the Shillington family until 1951 when following the death of Thomas Averell Shillington, (son of the above), it was put up for sale. It seems to have been acquired by the local RC parish and in 1953 became a children’s home run by the Sisters of Nazareth (‘Nazareth House’.) This order added the large octagonal block to the east at some time between 1963 and 1971 and remained here until 1984. At some point after this the property became St Francis Private Nursing Home.

The original house seems to have to have been vacated c.1990s and would appear to have remained disused ever since.

References – Primary sources
1 OS maps County series, Armagh sheet 9 – 1835, 1860, 1905-06, 1947, 1956; IG sheet 200-03 -1963, 1971, 1981, 1993
2 PRONI VAL1B/226A-B First valuation, Drumcree parish -1836-38
3 ‘Slater’s Commercial Directory of Ireland’, (J. Slater & Co., 1846), p.519
4 OS town plans of Portadown – 1857, 1891
5 PRONI VAL2B/2/24C Second valuation, Drumcree parish – 1862
6 PRONI VAL12B/14/12B, 12D, 12F, 12H Annual valuation revision books, Portadown ED – 1864-96
7 PRONI VAL12B/14/13B, 13D, 13G, 13L Annual valuation revision books, Portadown urban / South-west ward ED – 1864-96
8 NLI Census of Ireland, Portadown urban ED – 1901 (available online)
9 ‘Belfast News-Letter’ – 9 November 1951, p.1
10 ‘Portadown News’ - 8 October 1955, p.9

Secondary sources
11 Rankin, Kathleen, ‘The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley’ (UHF, 2007), pp.203-09

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Two-storey gentleman’s residence of c.1825 much altered in the later 20th century with the front elevation in particular compromised by the insertion of a large two storey link designed to integrate the existing structure with the neighbouring Modern style block constructed c.1969. The building does not meet the criteria for listing.

General comments

Previously HB14/LQ060