8 Bannview Terrace

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey four-bay end-of-terrace house built c1980; in a block replicating a former terrace c1865. Located directly on Dunbar Street northwest of the centre of Gilford.

Historical information

The current house was rebuilt c1980 but was a former mill worker’s dwelling, situated in a terrace of eight houses. Gilford town had begun an extremely rapid growth in population following the opening of the Dunbar McMaster spinning mill in the late 1830s. Between 1841 and 1851 the population more than quadrupled, from 643 to 2,814. By 1870 the mill was employing over 2,000 workers and built 200 houses between 1836 and 1862. (Logan) The current houses were not built by Dunbar McMaster & Co but nevertheless formed part of the town’s expansion in the wake of the success of the linen industry and over the years were often inhabited by mill workers.

The original terrace was built between 1864 and 1868 and first appears on the third edition OS map of 1901-2. The terrace was originally built from the north to the south, with the earliest houses dating from c1865 and the last to be built added by 1868. The houses were all valued at £4.10s with the exception of the dwelling over the gateway, which, being smaller, was valued at £2.5s.

These two houses had been completed by 1866 and the tenants were Moses Reid and Abraham Gray. Subsequent tenants were John Martin (1867) Sarah Vance and Joseph Wilson (1878), John Conway (1882), Joseph Powell and Richard Burns (1893) and at the time of the 1901 census, Jane Powell and Richard Brown. Jane Powell was a widow living with her three daughters, her son-in-law and her granddaughter. She kept house while her daughters and son-in-law worked at the mill, as a drawer, spreaders and a flax dresser. Richard Brown worked as a carter and lived with his wife and five children, all of whom save the youngest were working at the mill, the daughters as spinners and the sons as mill workers. Joseph Boyce, a tow sorter, took over one of the houses in 1906 and at the time of the 1911 census the tenants were Henry Adamson and Thomas Smyth. Adamson was a flax dresser and lived with his wife and baby daughter. They shared their home with two brothers-in-law who were general labourers. Subsequent tenants were Andrew Holland (1921) and Eliza Jane McKeown (1923), a linen thread spooler who had previously lived at other houses in the terrace. She was followed by Samuel Hardy in 1932. In the other house of the pair the 1911 census records Thomas Smyth who worked as a farm labourer and lived with his wife, stepson and two younger children. The stepson was a yarn bleacher. The house passed to Smyth’s widow Sarah in 1920 and she remained resident until at least 1935.

The houses were rebuilt by the Housing Executive c1980.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/26/1 First Edition OS Map 1834
2. PRONI OS/6/3/26/2 Second Edition OS map 1858
3. PRONI OS/6/3/26/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2
4. PRONI OS/6/3/26/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48F Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/21/8A-F Annual Revisions (1866-1923)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/21/3A-B Annual Revisions (1923-29)
8. PRONI VAL/12/F/4/12/2 Annual Revisions (1929-30)

Secondary Sources

1. Logan, R A “A Window on the Past, A History of Gilford County Down” Banbridge Chronicle, (n.d.)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A terrace comprising four two-storey four-bay houses built c1980; replicating a former terrace block c1865. As a modern structure it is of no historic interest.

General comments

Please note this record has been renumbered it was previously recorded as HB17/01/027 M & N

This record incorporates house numbers 13 & 14 and is now known as 8 Bannview Terrace.