Bannvale House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An asymmetrical two-storey four-bay former house, built c.1810, remodelled c.1860, now in use as administrative quarters for a health trust, located to east of Moyallen Road to the north of Gilford. L-shaped on plan with full-height projecting entrance bay and two-storey extension to west.

Pitched natural slate roof with roll topped ridge tiles and clipped verges. Simple rendered chimneystacks to cross walls. Half-round cast iron rainwater goods on slightly projecting rendered eaves. Walling is ruled-and-lined rendered over shallow plinth; entrance bay has slightly advanced straight quoins, spanned above each window by a platband embellished by widely spaced dentils. Windows are replacement sliding sashes; tripartite (2/2, 6/6, 2/2) over entrance and flanking entrance bay; otherwise 6/6 sashes (unless specifically stated) with the exception of entrance bay cheeks which are lit by 1/1 round-arched sliding sashes; ground floor windows are set within segmental-arched reveals with hood moulds; first floor windows have label moulds. Painted stone sills throughout (with exception of recent insertions).

Principal elevation faces south-east and is abutted to right of centre by a two-storey entrance bay, which has an opening to each floor at each elevation. Two windows to either side of entrance bay, those to left being more widely spaced (that to first floor far left was previously a replacement door). Modern entrance door with 2/2 sidelights having stone sills, plinth blocks, and granite threshold. Ground floor is extended to left side by a single-storey lean-to side porch with raised verge, lit by a window to south-east and having a modern door to north-west.

South-west gable is blank, and is abutted to ground floor by the lean-to and to the left side by a modern two-storey extension.
Extension has two 1/1 windows (to far left and right) to each floor of gable (those to first floor directly over); right cheek has a 1/1 window (to far left) to each floor (first floor window directly over) and abutted to ground floor right by the lean-to; left cheek has two 1/1 windows to each floor (those to first floor directly over); north-east face has a 1/1 window (to right) to each floor (first floor window directly over).

Rear (north-west) elevation comprises a two-storey return to left; partially abutted at right by a pitched roofed two-storey extension
(roof parallel with main block); exposed section has two 1/1 timber sliding sash windows to first floor (one to right and one to left of centre) and two diminutive (in height) casement windows to ground floor left with a half glazed door to right under a modern flat roofed canopy. Return has a glazed timber framed door with a modern flat roofed canopy over to left of centre and a 1/1 window to right with two 1/1 windows to first floor directly over ground floor openings all set in moulded architraves; right cheek has two 1/1 windows to each floor (those to first floor directly over); left cheek has three 1/1 windows to each floor (those to first floor directly over).

North-east gable has a window (to right of centre) to each floor (first floor window directly over) all set in moulded architraves.

Setting

The building occupies an institutional
setting, surrounded by tarmac parking and hardstandings and various of modern health services buildings. The site is surrounded by lawns; the former walled garden has been largely removed and now serves as a sensory garden; only a portion of the east wall remains and is rubble stone to its inner face, galletted to the outer face. Accessed from Moyallen Road at east by a long tarmac drive, with former gate lodge (HB17/01/031B) located opposite the entrance. A further former gate lodge (HB17/01/031C) is situated to the east and is now separated from the house by the Woodlands housing development.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

Bannvale House is a former linen house dating from the early nineteenth century. It was remodelled in the mid-nineteenth century and is one of a series of linen bleachers’ houses built along the Bann between Banbridge and Moyallon, in the wake of this area’s rise as one of the most important inland manufacturing areas in Ireland of the period. (Rankin) The present house is thought to have been built by James Uprichard in the early years of the nineteenth century - an original lease of 1809 bears the name of James Uprichard of Bannvale. (PRONI) In common with many of the prominent linen families of the Bann Valley the Uprichards were members of the Society of Friends (Quakers) and Bannvale remained in the Uprichard family for more than a hundred years.

A bleach mill is shown to the west of the present building on the first edition OS map of 1834 and expanses of ground to north and south of the house were used as bleaching greens. The house itself is captioned ‘Bann Vale’ and comprises a dwelling on a rectangular plan with a rear courtyard surrounded by outbuildings. The Townland Valuation lists the property as a ‘house, offices and old mills’, ‘old mills with old machinery all in a state of decay’ suggesting that by this time the mill had not been in operation for some years. The property belongs to James Uprichard and is valued at £22.12s. Dimensions are given for a two-storey house, classified as ‘in sound order and good repair’ and a ‘car’ house, stables, barn, dog house, privies and piggery, some of which appear to be thatched at this time. The gate house which was ‘deteriorated by age’ is also listed. By the time of Griffith’s Valuation (c.1861), a coachman’s house had been added to the property and the valuation was raised to £36 and then £56, reflecting some remodelling and improvements including the addition of a double-height extension to the front facade. The extension is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1901-2.

James Uprichard, and his younger brothers Thomas and Henry, were the founders of the linen bleaching company J, T and H Uprichard, having acquired a bleach works at Springvale in Lawrencetown soon after 1830. Funds to acquire the works were released by selling some of their land at Bannvale to Hugh Dunbar who then established the Dunbar McMaster linen thread mill at Gilford. The bleach works at Bannvale appears to have fallen into disuse after Springvale was acquired. Springvale Bleach Works became a highly successful enterprise and was expanded by William Uprichard in 1884 at a cost of £10,000. It eventually closed in 1955. (Rankin)

On James Uprichard’s death in 1840 the house passed to his second son William, remaining in the ownership of the Uprichards until the early decades of the twentieth century. Henry Albert Uprichard inherited the property on his father’s death in 1884 but the house was let out to a number of tenants in the 1890s, the Uprichard’s preferring nearby Elmfield Castle as their main residence. Nevertheless at the time of the 1901 census the Uprichard family was in residence at Bannvale, Henry and his second wife Beatrice were there together with children from his first and second marriages, six in all. Also resident was Beatrice’s mother from Waterford and four female servants. Henry Albert Uprichard died in November 1901 and left Bannvale to his second son, also called Henry Albert, together with a share in Springvale Bleach Works, although Henry Albert junior was, by this time, working as a tea merchant in the firm founded by his grandfather, Forster Green & Co, in due course becoming Managing Director of the firm. (Will of Henry Albert Uprichard)

Henry Albert Uprichard (1880-1916) lived in the house intermittently in the early years of the twentieth century but by 1911 the house had been let to a widow, Anne Jane Kane, and her two daughters who kept a single domestic servant. Kane would appear to have been a relative by marriage of the Uprichards. Henry Albert’s brother William was married to Nancy Kane, daughter of the Rector of Tullylish. (Rankin)

Major Henry Albert Uprichard was Commander of the 2nd Battalion of the West Down regiment of the Ulster Volunteer Force. He joined up when the war started, like many of his colleagues in the UVF, and was killed in action in the attack on Thiepval in July 1916. He is commemorated by the Major Uprichard Memorial Orange Hall, Tullylish. Uprichard had been a wealthy man, having inherited a proportion of his grandfather’s fortune, and was an enthusiastic polo player and rode at steeplechase and point-to-point meetings, hunting with the County Down staghounds and the Iveagh harriers. (Rankin) After the death of Major Uprichard the house was sold, but was used as an orthopaedic hospital for wounded soldiers from the autumn of 1916, extending the facilities offered at nearby Dunbarton House by another 30 beds.

The house was subsequently let out and the tenants were David Pedlow (1920) George Brown (1922) Captain Grant (1927) John Grant (1928) Joseph Boyce (1934) and Thelma Ruth Hill (1935) although the house was frequently vacant during this period. The house was revalued at £80 in the First General Revaluation, reduced to £65 on appeal in 1935 due to bad repair, damp and dry rot. In 1934 the accommodation consisted of on the ground floor, two receptions, office, kitchen and scullery and three pantries, on the first floor, seven bedrooms, a dressing room, study, two bathrooms and two WCs. The rent was £90 per annum plus rates which was considered to be low. A plan and dimensions are given of the house and outbuildings. In 1941 the property was requisitioned and additional temporary buildings were constructed in the grounds for the War department.

The house was purchased after the war in 1946 by Dunbar McMaster and Co Ltd of the local spinning mill with a view to converting it into a female workers’ hostel and some alterations towards this end took place. This scheme was, however, shortlived and in 1951 the house, buildings and 13 acres of land were purchased by the Northern Ireland Hospitals Authority for £5,000 to use as a hospital for the treatment of ‘mentally defective’ boys. Offices and staff room were on the ground floor and 6 dormitories for 32 boys on the first floor. As occupational therapy, the boys were encouraged to do light work in the grounds around the house. On being converted to a hospital the house was revalued at £130 in 1952 and £180 in 1955 when temporary buildings left by the army were demolished and self-contained units were added to house an additional 40 boys, consisting of weatherboarded dormitories and dining room and a brick kitchen/day room and boiler room, with brick connecting passages. The building is captioned on the 1960s/70s map as the ‘Bannvale (Special Care Unit)’.

By the 1980s the building had become a centre for learning for disabled adults. The Southern Trust moved out of the building in the mid-1980s and the patients were transferred to new accommodation in the grounds. Bannvale fell into disrepair, but following negotiations with the NIEA the house was restored in 1990 under the supervision of Victor Marshall, architect of Dungannon. In 1993 an extension was built to the south-west corner of the building and a portion of the rear was demolished. This work was carried out to designs by the Estate Management department of Craigavon Area Hospital. (HB file)

The house is now used as an administration building for the Southern Health and Social Care Trust.

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/1/B/350 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48C Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/21/8A-F Annual Revisions (1866-1930)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/3A – Annual Revisions (1923-29)
9. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/25 – First General Revaluation (1936-57)
10. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/12/C/4 – First General Revaluation (1933-57)
11. PRONI Will of Henry Albert Uprichard, died 11th November 1901
12. PRONI D959/3/1/3A – Lease and release James Uprichard, Bannvale (1809)
13. NIEA HB17/01/031A

Secondary Sources

1. Rankin, K “The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley, The story of their families” Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

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

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Bannvale House is a four-bay two-storey former house, built c.1810, remodelled c.1860 and occupying an extensive site. Changes to its use have compromised historic fabric and detailing, and the historic setting has been eroded by the introduction of tarmac and parking spaces, and by the construction of several modern buildings. However, the house retains its historic connections with the linen industry in the area, and is the site of an early bleach works. Significant historic features survive and, along with its gate lodges (HB17/01/031B & C), Bannvale House remains of special interest, underlined by its history and association with local industry.

General comments

Formerly HB17/01/031, this record has been amended with the suffix 'A', as part of a group with associated gate lodge.