The Shillington Building, Castle Street, Portadown, Craigavon, Co Armagh BT62 1BD

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

For descriptive purposes, this block is sub-divided on the basis of its historical development into six units.

1. Two-storey 19th C warehouse
This L-shaped store was erected in 1869. Its principal façade is aligned N-S along Castle St (1A), with a long return extending E-W along the N side of the block (1B). Although both sections rise to the same eaves height, the frontage has two floors internally whereas the side return has three.
This building has a hipped natural slate roof with a raised brick firewall between the two internal bays of 1B. Excepting the façade which is entirely of brick, the lower part of the entire building is of random rubble (brought to courses) and its upper part is of brick. A moulded yellow-brick cornice runs along the W elevation of 1A and N and E sides of 1B. Its absence from the yard elevations of 1A and 1B was doubtless because these walls were not in public view. The rainwater goods comprise cast-iron ogee gutters and rectangular-section downpipes to the W elevation, ogee gutters and round downpipes to N, and mostly plastic replacements to the yard elevations.

Building 1A
The W elevation of 1A has a double-leaf t&g timber doorway towards its left-hand end, set in a three-centred brick archway trimmed with round-edged brick. Towards the right-hand end is a pedestrian entrance with four-panel timber door (with brass letterbox) and rectangular over-light. Immediately to its right is a small polished brass plaque reading 'T.A. Shillington & Son Limited, Registered Office. The GF also has three 2-over-2 sliding sash timber windows, all with horizontal glazing bars and security grilles over. The large picture window opening at the right-hand end of the GF dates from the 1930s when building 2 was added. It is uncertain whether or not there was a smaller window there originally. The FF of this façade also has five regularly-spaced two-over-two windows. All these windows have dressed stone cills. Between the floors to the right of the vehicle entrance are painted capital letters reading 'T A Shillington'; they probably continued as '& Son Ltd' before the frontage of building 2 was modified.

Building 1B
The N elevation of 1B extends the entire length of the block. Its GF has a vehicular entrance detailed as that on the W elevation of 1A. There is also another such entrance towards the left end with a roller shutter door. The maps show it to have been an original opening as well, but its brick jambs and three-centred head have been altered to accommodate a flat concrete head. There is also a pedestrian doorway at the right-hand end, on the N gable of 1A. It appears to be an original feature although the present door is possibly a replacement. Between the two vehicular doors are four small square windows, all later inserts with top-opening timber casements and shallow concrete cills. The stonework around them has been very obviously repainted with cement-rich mortar. There is also a modern fire escape door insertion at the left-hand end of this elevation.
The FF has nine openings. The one above the left-hand vehicle entrance is a double-leaf timber loading door but all the others are windows. The one at the right-hand end is a later insert to light an internal toilet. The remaining seven are original flat-headed window opes, all but one of which is a one-over-one timber sashes and stone cills. The original opes to this and the SF may well have been timber shutters or louvred vents originally.
The SF has eight openings in line with the original ones on the FF. All are one-over-two timber sashes, detailed as below, but of diminished height.
The E gable of 1B has a large window ope at FF and a smaller one to SF. Both are now infilled with brick.
Most of the yard (S) elevation of 1B is obscured by later additions (buildings 4 and 5) and cement render. Several original semicircular-headed brick archways are nevertheless apparent at GF level. There are also assorted window and door openings at FF and SF level, some of which may be later inserts and most of which are now infilled or have been sheeted over.
The yard € elevation of 1A is likewise completely abutted by later buildings (5 and 6).

Roof: Natural slate.
RWG: Ogee metal to front, plastic to back.
Walls: Exposed random rubble with brick over.
Windows: 1/1 and 1/2 timber sashes.

2. Two-storey 20th C ofices and showroom
This two-storey building dates from the 1930s and was erected on the site of the 1860s caretaker's house, four-storey offices and stores, and five-storey mill and kiln along the S side of the block. The W end of this building is aligned N-S along Castle St and is continuous with the S end of building 1A. The rest of it is aligned E-W along the S side of the block.
The roof is of pitched natural slate with skylights. It is so well tied into 1A that the entirety of building 1 may well have been reslated when building 2 was erected. The rainwater goods are plastic ogee gutters on timber eaves boards and round downpipes, also of plastic. The walls comprise a rectangular reinforced-concrete frame with external brick infill panels. The framing is evident along the W and S elevations in the form of continuous ope heads to the GF and FF. Although the brickwork of building 1 and 2 is similar, a wall break between them is nevertheless evident at FF level on the W façade. It is also evident at GF level, albeit one ope left of the FF break due to the fact that part of 1B has been 'robbed' to create a GF picture window in building 2.
The façade faces W on to Castle St and is continuous with building 1A. It has two large picture windows (one of which is in 1A) and a pedestrian door at GF, and two large picture windows at FF. All the windows are modern double-glazed replacements or previous windows of similar size. A modern name board runs between GF and FF level, and advertising panels are also affixed between the windows at FF level.
The S elevation also has assorted timber-framed casement windows to both floors (with concrete cills) and also pedestrian doorways to GF and at FF right (the latter accessed by an external metal staircase). Also at FF level is a modern projecting bay supported on metal columns which houses an office and also forms a canopy over the left-hand GF doorway.
Excepting its exposed brick apex, the E gable is rendered with cement and has no openings.
The N elevation of this building is of some heritage interest. Although now largely abutted by later infill buildings 4, 5, and 6, the random rubble walls of the GF and FF portions of the mid-19th C five-storey mill and kiln are still evident in the wall fabric. This wall is also shown in the 1932 newspaper picture taken after the fire which gutted the former saw mill in the yard. Small segmental-headed brick-trimmed window opes associated with the original mill are also visible, albeit now infilled.

3. Small 20th C shed single-storey with Belfast truss roof
This single-storey/ single-bay building is aligned E-W at the SE corner of the block. In its present form, it probably dates from the 1930s and is now houses the saw mill. It has a curved corrugated-metal Belfast-truss roof with plastic skylights and gutters of cement-fibre and plastic. See the interior description for details of the roof.
The walls are of painted concrete blockwork and/or brick to S, exposed random rubble to E, and a mixture of random rubble and brick to N; its W end is formed by building 2). The E gable shows at least three phases of construction: (1) random rubble masonry in the body of the wall, (2) snecked random rubble in the apex, and (3) red brickwork along the top of the stonework, most (but not necessarily all) of which dates from when the present roof was inserted (probably in the 1930s).
There is a large roller-shuttered door at the W end of the S elevation, an infilled pedestrian doorway on the E gable (trimmed with brick), a small window also on the E gable (a later insert, now infilled), and a wide doorway with RSJ head at the W end of the N elevation.

4. Large 20th C single-storey shed with Belfast truss roof
This building is an infill at the E end of the yard, between buildings 1B at N, and 2 and 3 to S. It occupies the site of the 19th C saw mill and was probably erected in the 1930s shortly after the fire which devastated the previous mill.
The roof is of bowstring construction and covered with felt, with corrugated plastic skylights along its apex; see the interior description for further details. There is a wide flat valley gutter along its N side which discharges into a cast-iron ogee gutter and metal down pipe on its E gable. The roof is accessible via a window hatch on the top floor of 1B. A portion of the original roof was subsequently cut out at SE to accommodate a flat concrete roof over RSJs and into which an extraction fan has been inserted.
The roof's supporting N and S walls are as described under buildings 1B and 3 respectively. The W end is open except for its roof apex which is clad with vertical timber boards. The E gable is of random rubble with later alterations in brick. The large opening at left has a concrete cill and may have once have been a doorway or wide window. It is infilled with brick into which a smaller window with concrete cill has been inserted (but is now infilled). There is a similarly infilled window at right. The upper part of this gable is clad with corrugated metal and has 12 contiguous single-pane/ timber-framed windows across it.

5. Small two-storey mid-20th C store
This L-shaped two-storey building is an infill which probably dates from the 1940s. It has a pitched corrugated-asbestos roof (with skylights) and semicircular asbestos-fibre gutters. Its GF is largely open and its FF sits on RSJ beams resting on concrete-encased RSJs. The FF walls are of corrugated-metal over timber frames. At FF level there are doors in from buildings 1A and 2, and also miscellaneous multi-paned timber-framed windows with timber cills. There is along an external metal staircase up to the FF at the N end of the E elevation.

6. Two-storey later-20th C offices
This two-storey/ two-bay unit is also a late infill added sometime between the 1940s and '60s. The bays were probably built sequentially rather than simultaneously. Both have flat roofs (one also has raised plastic skylights), partly-rendered brick walls, and timber casement windows (with concrete heads and cills). Both floors are accessible from building 2.

Setting
The
setting of Shillington's block has changed dramatically over the past half century. North of the block is a tarmaced public car park which extends as far as Northway, as the embanked road over the Bann is known and which was built in the 1970s to serve Craigavon. There is also a modern slipway into the river for public use. Until the mid-1900s, a public quay ran parallel with the north side of the block as far as Castle Street. North of the quay were industrial buildings as far as the Belfast-Dublin railway embankment on the other side of Northway.
As was always so, the west side of the block is bounded by Castle St. There were industrial buildings on the opposite side of the road, virtually all of which have been cleared away to make way for another surface car park.
South of the block is an open yard belonging to Messrs Shillington. The firm had its own private quay which ran parallel with, and just beyond the south side of the block as far as the road. The plot between this quay and Bridge Street was the first to be developed by Messrs Shillington in the 1830s. The inlet is long infilled and the rest of the plot has been tarmaced for customer car parking and the storage of building materials.
On the east side, the premises originally extended as far as the Bann. In recent years the local Council acquired the narrow strip of land between the buildings and the river and created the Bann Boulevard, a public footpath running south along the river to Whitecoat Point where it links into the Newry Canal towpath and Ulster Way.

Historical information

This plot began to be developed in the early 1800s. The 1835 OS map shows a long building aligned E-W on the E side of Castle St, directly opposite a large distillery on the W side. It is noted in the 1836 Valuation as being a store and kiln belonging to Thomas Shillington. He appears to have had his own private quay along the S side of the plot and there was also a public quay on its N side, both of which were served by artificial cuts off the river. Thomas A Shillington of Church Street Portadown is noted in an 1841-42 street directly as a grocer, tea dealer, coal, iron timber and grain merchant. The building shown on the map is undoubtedly where these items were temporarily stored, having been brought by lighter from Belfast along the Lagan Navigation and up the Lower Bann.
By 1860 this store had disappeared and the only buildings within the plot were two small houses at its NW corner. The original store was probably demolished to make way for a substantial block of buildings which were erected by 1862 along the south side of the plot by Thomas A Shillington and his son Thomas. According to the 1862 Valuation, this block comprised an office, caretaker's house, stores, weighbridge and quay. The stores included a five-storey building 15.8m (52ft) high which was erected as a mill but not fitted out. It had a five-storey return which was used as a corn kiln - presumably for the drying of grain prior to storage rather than grinding. There was also an engine house and 22.6m (74ft) high chimney.
A c.1861 pictorial view looking upstream towards the Bann Bridge shows the substantial scale of Messrs Shillington's new additions. An 1890s Lawrence photograph shows the five-storey store, kiln return, and tapered brick chimney. A 1911 photograph also shows the caretaker's house to have been two storeys high with a hipped roof and central chimney.
The Valuation revision book entry for 1864 notes the addition of a saw mill. The accompanying Valuation map shows it to have abutted the north side of the 1862 block, halfway along. It would have been driven by a steam engine as there was no water power available hereabouts, despite the proximity of the Bann (owing to a lack of fall).
In 1869, an L-shaped two-storey store was added along the north and west sides of the plot (building 1, described above). The two houses at the NW corner were cleared to make way for it.
The 1890 and 1906 OS maps show all the 1860s' buildings around the north, west and south S sides of the plot, with an internal yard containing the saw mill and open to the river at its east end, with the public quay to the north and Shillington's quay and coal yard to the south. The dimensions of these various buildings are recorded in a 1922 Valuation notebook.
On 6 August 1930, the five-storey buildings and parts of adjoining ones were gutted by fire. Fortunately, the saw mill and the stores along the north and west sides of the block escaped injury.
There was a second fire on 21 May 1932. This time the saw mill was completely gutted along with a 60hp oil engine which had superseded the steam engine. The devastation is captured in a contemporary newspaper photograph which also shows the north wall of the five-storey section to have been lowered to two storeys after the previous fire. On 18 July of that year, Shillington's auctioned off the surviving items of saw milling machinery: a band saw, three circular bench saws and planing and moulding machines.
The 1933 OS map shows all the buildings along the south side of the block to have been replaced by the present two-storey showrooms (building 2) and shed (building 3). A new saw mill is now housed in a large infill shed at the east end of the yard (building 4).
Most of the yard was subsequently infilled. The 1947 OS map shows the existence of building 5, and the 1963-67 map also shows building 6 in its present form.
In 1979, Messrs Shillingtons were taken over by the Haldane Shiells Group and now trades under the name of Haldane Fisher Ltd.

References - Primary Sources:
1. PRONI OS/6/2/9/1. First edition OS 1:10,560 map, Co Armagh sheet 9 (1835).
2. PRONI VAL/1/B/226B, pp 39 and 221. First Valuation book, pp 39 and 221 (1836).
3. Martin's 1841-42 Belfast Directory, p.297.
4. PRONI OS/6/2/9/2. Second edition OS 1:10,560 map, Co Armagh sheet 9 (1860).
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/2/24F. Second Valuation book, p.85A (1862).
6. PRONI VAL/12/E/71/1/2. Valuation revision maps for Portadown (1862-95).
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/14/12A-H. Valuation revision books (1864-96).
8. PRONI OS/8/41/2/2. OS 1:1056 map, Portadown sheet 2 (1890).
9. National Library Ireland EB_0593. Late 1800s Lawrence photograph.
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/14/13A-M. Valuation revision books (1896-1930).
11. PRONI VAL/12/E/71/2/2. Valuation revision maps for Portadown (1896-1909).
12. PRONI OS/8/41/3/2 and OS/8/41/3/4. OS 1:1056 maps, Portadown sheets 2 and 4 (1905-06).
13. PRONI VAL/12/E/71/3/2. Valuation revision maps for Portadown (1909-27).
14. PRONI VAL/12/A/2/45. Valuation revision notebook, pp 81-82 (1922).
15. Belfast News-Letter, 7 Aug 1930, p.7.
16. Portadown Times, 8 Aug 1930, p.1.
17. Northern Whig, 23 May 1932, p.8.
18. Belfast Telegraph, 23 May 1932, p.3 (includes photograph of fire-gutted sawmill).
19. Belfast Telegraph, 18 July 1932, p.2.
20. PRONI OS/10/2/9/4/1A and OS/10/2/9/8/1A. OS 1:2500 maps, Co Armagh sheets 9-04 and 9-08 (1933).
21. PRONI OS/10/2/9/4/3 and OS/10/2/9/8/2. OS 1:2500 maps, Co Armagh sheets 9-04 and 9-08 (1947).
22. PRONI OS/10/2/9/4/4 and OS/10/2/9/8/3. OS 1:2500 maps, Co Armagh sheets 9-04 and 9-08 (1955-56).
23. PRONI OS/27/200/2. OS Irish Grid 1:10,000 map, sheet 200 (1963-67).

References - Secondary sources:
1. A.F. Young and D. Quail, 'Old Portadown' (Catrine: Stenlake Publications, 2002). Contains 1911 and 1918 images of Shillington premises.
2. Rotary Club of Portadown, 'Portadown' (Export & Freight Publications, n.d.). Contains 1861 view of premises.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
D. Plan Form
E. Spatial Organisation
F. Structural System
H-. Alterations detracting from building
H+. Alterations enhancing the building
I. Quality and survival of Interior
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance

Evaluation

The principal section of this complex building [refs1A-1B] is of architectural interest as a good example of a mid-19th century provincial warehouse. Although it has undergone some minor alterations both inside and out, it retains its original character and most of its original detailing, particularly its internal flooring and roof structure. Its adjacency to the River Bann reflects the importance of river traffic to and from the premises in the 19th century. Historically, the warehouse retains much of its original wall, floor and roof fabric. It is also a well-known local landmark, having been a builders' supplier for 150 years, for most of this time under the sole management of the Shillington family.

The large sheds to the rear of the grouping [refs 3 and 4], although of a later date, are also of note, being intact examples of Belfast Truss-roofed buildings, a type once common throughout the country but now scarce, with those of this scale particularly rare.

General comments

Extent of listing and evaluation updated by PS 2019.07.22