Lenaderg Post Office

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey multi-bay post office and shop erected c.1868. Double fronted L-shaped plan form with canted corner entrance, incorporating an extension to the adjacent house (HB17/02/003B); located at the corner of the junction between Huntly Road and Dandy Row; approximately 1 ½ miles north of Banbridge.

Pitched natural slate roof with leaded ridge and hips; cast-iron rainwater goods; red-brick chimneys. Red brick walling laid to Flemish bond. Shop frontage to ground floor comprising tripartite display windows flanked by panelled pilasters; continuous timber sign boards over with moulded cornice. Other windows are 2/2 timber sliding sash with horizontal glazing bars; with horns; painted masonry cills. The front door is a double leaf timber door; boarded up on the exterior; rectangular overlight.

Double fronted principal elevation facing north and east with corner entrance.

East elevation. Left bay is incorporated at both floors into the adjoining dwelling; single ground and first floor window; blocked up ground floor window to the right. The right portion of the elevation is distinguishable as the shop with accommodation; higher eaves; tripartite display window at ground floor with signage over; single first floor window. The chamfered corner to the right comprises the main shop entrance and single first floor window.

North elevation. Double tripartite ground floor display windows with central post box. First floor window to centre and right. Blocked up window to the left.

The left elevation abuts adjoining dwelling (HB17/02/003B).

The rear elevation is abutted by the rear return of adjoining dwelling (HB17/02/003B).

The right elevation abuts adjoining dwelling (HB17/02/003F).

Setting

The building is positioned directly on bend of the road. Red-telephone box “K6” type installed c.1940 adjacent to the front door. Cluster of associated historic buildings to the north and west (HB17/02/003A-J). Some modern housing developments to the south.

Roofing: Natural slate
Walling : Brick
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Valuation records date the house to c.1868. It was built as a shop and dwelling house by William and John Smyth as part of a self-contained industrial settlement called ‘Milltown’ first established in 1820. In common with Victorian industrialists on the Bann and elsewhere, the Smyths followed in a tradition of social paternalism, providing housing, education and other services such as a reading room, and funds for the sick, for funeral expenses and for the provision of food, fuel and clothing during inclement seasons. (www.bob-sinton.com) Until it closed in 2000 the shop and post office had been run by the same family for nearly eighty years and the shop/post office has retained many of the features of an earlier age.

The first edition OS map of 1833 shows Milltown House, a bleach mill on the Bann and extensive bleach greens surrounding the two structures. By the time of the second edition of 1860 there has been considerable development of the works and the surrounding area, including the addition of a national school and worker’s housing. However, the shop and adjoining house was not built until c.1864 and is first shown on the third edition OS map of c.1900.

Milltown was established in 1820 when John Smyth (1798-1890), the descendant of a linen-trading family, bought a corn mill and surrounding land from the Crawford family and erected an extensive bleaching and finishing works. Beside the bleach works he built Milltown House c.1825, reputedly as a wedding present for his fiancé Anna McClelland of Belmont House and John Smyth & Co became, by 1839, the largest bleaching and finishing works on the Bann with an output of 40,000 pieces of cloth per year. Three of John and Anna Smyth’s twelve children later formed the company William Smyth & Co Ltd, a successful firm which went on to employ more than 250 people. (Rankin; Bassett’s Directory; www.bob-sinton.com) The railway line connecting Banbridge with Scarva (1859) and Lisburn (1863), provided a convenient means of transport for the company’s goods and no doubt aided the expansion of the business. In 1857 the Smyths became owners of the Bannville Beetling Mill and by this time had customers from all over the world including the USA, Italy, Russia and Germany. (www.bob-sinton.com)An iron foundry was established in 1876 for the company’s own needs as well as local light engineering work. By 1886 the bleach works and bleach greens covered an area of 220 acres. The works were water powered with steam used as an auxiliary and there were six iron water wheels. (Bassett’s Directory)

The building first appears in the Annual Revision fieldbook dating from 1864-1878 and is initially listed as a newly-built vacant dwelling valued at £2.10s and an adjacent shop valued at £6. However, it appears that the buildings were unfinished at this time and they are revalued in 1868 at £4 and £10.10s. The landlord is initially John Smyth Senior, and later William Smyth & Co Ltd.

The building now numbered 192 initially comprised a small dwelling house, similar to those in Dandy Row, which was valued separately from the shop. The shop and dwelling were initially occupied by John Henry Barr (1868), then William Pennington took over the house in 1873, at which time the valuation of the shop was raised to £15.10s, possibly due to an extension built between the shop and the neighbouring house (number 190), the ground floor of which forms part of the shop. Bassett’s Directory of 1886 lists the postmistress as Mrs M Barr who advertised herself as a ‘family grocer, draper and general house furnisher’, also specialising in ‘millinery, dress and mantle making’. Subsequent occupiers took over both parts of the building. The 1901 census records the premises as a drapery and grocer’s shop run by William Boal who lived there with his wife and step-daughter. Two paid assistants and two apprentices of 15 and 14 were also resident. Margaret Boal took over the shop in 1909 and by the time of the 1911 census the postmaster was 26-year-old Richard Wright who was assisted by his brother. A photograph taken in 1914 shows Dick Wright flanked by two of his sons in front of the store and there has been little change in the facade of the shop since that time. The dwelling adjacent to the shop by this time accommodated the post office. The Wright family went on to establish Wright’s Engineering Garage in Dromore Street, Banbridge in 1921. (Young and Quail) According to Young and Quail, a letter franked here in 1848 survives and the business goes back to the 1840s, when it was opened as a co-operative by the mill owners Smyth & Co. However, the current building was not present until the mid-1860s and it is possible the business began elsewhere in Milltown. The post office was well used in the vicinity because mill workers were drawn from all over the country. (Young and Quail)

In 1922 the smaller house/post office was occupied by Herbert J Martin, who had come from a grocer’s shop in Lawrencetown and the larger house and shop by his son Robert J Martin. Herbert died in 1927 leaving his widow Sadie and his sons Roy and Billy to run the business. By 1930 both parts were again occupied jointly by Sarah Martin and were revalued at £24 in the mid-1930s. The post office opened at 8 am and closed at 7.30 pm while the shop stayed open until 8 pm and 10 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. (Young and Quail) By the time of the First General Revaluation of the early 1930s the house (number 190), shop and post office were included in a single valuation. The whole was revalued at £22.10s, then £24 and accommodation comprised a shop on the corner, branch Post Office in the former house to the side, five bedrooms, two receptions, a kitchen, scullery and pantry with a coal yard at the rear. A plan and dimensions are given showing the shop, post office, house, a small return and the coal. The rent was £36 per annum.

The son of Sarah Martin, Roy Martin, was the last post master and held the position for 34 years until the post office closed in 2000. The shop was described as a ‘step back in time’. (www.bob-sinton.com; Young and Quail)

References:
Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 First Edition OS Map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 Second Edition OS map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 Third Edition OS Map (c1900)
4. PRONI OS/6/3/27/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
5. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48D Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-D Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
7. PRONI VAL/12/F/4/2/9 Annual Revisions (1930-35)
8. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 First General Revaluation (1936-57)
9. PRONI VAL/3/D 4/3/L/3 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
10. Bassett’s Directory 1886

Secondary Sources
1. Rankin, K “The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley, The story of their families” Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007
2. www.bob-sinton.com
3. Young, A F and Quail, D “Old Banbridge” Stenlake Publishing, 2002

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
I. Quality and survival of Interior
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

A two-storey multi-bay post office and shop erected c1868 and including the extended portion of the adjacent house (HB17/07/003B). It was built as a shop and dwelling house by William and John Smyth as part of a self-contained industrial settlement called ‘Milltown’ first established in 1820. Although no longer in service, the shop and post office has retained its character and appearance, with a large proportion of the historic fabric remaining. Together with the adjacent cluster of buildings (HB17/02/003A-J) the building is of significant historic and local interest as part of a largely unaltered example of a small 19th century development resulting from the local linen industry. Its purpose-built origin is also of note as Milltown is one of only a few planned settlements in Northern Ireland.