Former Lodge

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An asymmetrical single-storey two-bay gate lodge, formerly part of the Bannvale House estate, built c.1880 and now located at the entrance to a modern housing estate, Woodbank, on the north side of Gilford village. L-shaped on plan with projecting gabled entrance porch.

Pitched natural slate roof with angled ridge tiles, tall rendered chimneystack set on a plinth, with moulded cap and terracotta pots, located to valley at return. Ogee cast iron rainwater goods and plain replacement bargeboards. Walling is basalt rubble, brought to rough courses, all over a projecting plinth with chamfered pale brick trim, and with stepped brick quoins. Windows are replacement 4/4 hardwood sashes with flush deeply chamfered sills and chamfered brick surrounds. Doors are modern hardwood.

Principal elevation faces north. The gabled right bay projects and is lit by a single window; the porch further projects from the re-entrant angle and is lit by a window to north and west; entrance door to east; the porch apex has a blank rectangular plaque.

East elevation is lit by a single window.

Rear elevation is abutted by a flat-roofed modern extension, of no interest. It is concealed by a high yard wall.

West elevation is lit by a bi-partite window with brick mullion.

Setting

The lodge has been cut off from the house (HB17/01/031A) by NI Housing Executive development to west and north, and now occupies an urban
setting with main road north from the village passing directly to east. Opposite is Bannvale Terrace (HB17/01/021A-N).

Roof: Slate
Walling: Basalt
Windows: timber
RWG: Cast iron

Historical information

Bannvale House(HB17/01/031A) dates from the early nineteenth century and is one of a series of linen bleachers’ mansions to be built along the Bann between Banbridge and Moyallon, reflecting this area’s rise as one of the most important inland manufacturing areas in Ireland of the period. (Rankin) During the course of its life a number of gate lodges have been added to the estate. Two now remain of the original three lodges, the earlier dating from c.1850 and the current building from c.1880. The current ‘Lodge’ is first shown, captioned, on the third edition OS map of 1901-2. The gate lodge was inserted into valuation records in 1884 at a valuation of £2.10s and was let to Hugh McCutcheon. The lodge was built as part of improvements made to the estate by Henry Albert Uprichard, linen merchant, on inheriting his father’s property in 1884.

Subsequent occupiers were James Nicholson (1896) Hans Quinn (1902) James Sturgeon (1904) Daniel Cumberford (1908) John Wilson (1911) John Henderson (1923) Richard Wilson (1929) and William Irvine (1932).

The 1901 census shows 23-year-old James Nicholson, coachman at Bannvale, resident with his wife and two young children. By 1911 the tenant was John Wilson, a general labourer and his wife and two adult sons who were also general labourers. The census also tragically records that the couple had had nine children of whom only three had survived.

At the time of the First General Revaluation of 1933 the occupier was Herbert Vaughan and the house was revalued at £4.10s reduced to £3.10s after an appeal made by William F Uprichard of Elmfield. In 1934 the house consisted of a kitchen and bedroom and was let for 2 shillings a week, but was no longer considered to be a gate lodge although the landlord was still the owner of Bannvale. A map and dimensions of the house were given.

In 1948 an area of 11 acres belonging to the estate was sold to the Northern Ireland Housing Trust for the sum of £1425 and 48 new houses were in progress on the site by 1949. The same year the current house was taken over by the Northern Ireland Housing Trust and was used for a short while as an estate office, which entailed a rise in the valuation to £6. However, in 1952 it reverted back to a house at the old valuation, permission having been withdrawn by Moira Rural District Council to use the building as anything other than a dwelling house. In 1953 the house was let to J Harper at a rent of 2s.6d.

The present (Bannvale) 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.

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 linen thread mill at Gilford. The bleach works at Bannvale appears to have fallen into disuse after Springvale was acquired. Springvale Bleach Works was 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. 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. (Valuation Records) Bannvale house is now used as an administration building for the Southern Health and Social Care Trust. The former gate lodge continues in use as a dwelling.

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. 1901 census online
14. 1911 census online

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

A two-bay single-storey gate lodge built c.1880, and located at the former north entrance to Bannvale House (HB17/01/031A). The lodge is simply detailed, with a contrast between the black basalt walling and pale brick dressings. Although its original fenestration and entrance door have been lost and the interior has been compromised by loss of fabric, its historic character survives. Its original setting has also been compromised by modern development but the lodge is of note as part of the group relating to Bannvale House, one of the principal linen houses in the area.

General comments

The original address recorded for this lodge was incorrect - the incorrect address was 2 Lurgan Road - this has now been changed.
Please note this record has been renumbered it was previously recorded as HB17/01/029