Millpark House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A vacant three-bay two-storey house with outbuildings built c.1780, extended 1876 and again c.1940. Situated on a large wooded site to the north side of Springvale Road in Lawrencetown. Cruciform plan comprising four intersecting bays with two-storey extension to rear and single-storey lean-to porch.

Hipped cruciform natural slate roof with leaded hips and rendered chimneystacks. uPVC rainwater goods. Walling is roughcast render. Windows are a variety of timber sliding sash with exposed boxes and projecting sills.

The principal elevation faces north and is entirely concealed under vegetation. See historical information.

The east elevation is partially concealed by vegetation; 2/4 window to first floor centre and 4/4 to ground floor left.

The south (rear) elevation has south intersecting bay to centre with bipartite window to ground and first floor; two-storey extension to left has window to ground floor; lean-to porch to right has window and opens to east.

The west elevation was not viewed (see surveyor’s comments).

Setting

Set on a large wooded site, formerly a bleachworks, with a long tree-lined entrance from Springvale Road. Laneway leads to yard to east with a rubblestone stable block and two-storey barn, all with timber-sheeted half-doors and corrugated tin roofs. Garden to east enclosed by rubble stone wall with red-brick coping. Large paddock to south bounded by a rubble stone boundary wall with metal latch gate.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Roughcast render
Windows: Timber
RWG: uPVC

Historical information

‘Millpark House’, now derelict, dates from 1780 with later Victorian and mid-twentieth century additions.

‘Mill Park’ was advertised in the Belfast Newsletter of 8th January 1782, as a newly built house, 50 acres of land and a bleach works capable of finishing 8,000 pieces of linen a year. It had belonged to the late Thomas Christy, a member of one of the oldest linen families in the Banbridge area. The Christys have been credited with the introduction of linen bleaching on the Bann at Moyallon in the late seventeenth century. (Rankin)

‘Mill Park’ is shown, captioned, on the first edition OS map of 1833, with associated ‘Bleach Mills’ to the north west and is surrounded by a large expanse of bleach greens. ‘Spring Vale’ house and ‘Bleach Mills’ are shown close by to the east. The house is roughly cruciform in shape, corresponding to the early Georgian core of the building which was later modified as tastes changed over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Townland Valuation of 1828-40 lists the occupier as John Christy. His house, offices and bleach mills are valued at £59.12s and dimensions are given for the house, return and porch as well as outbuildings including a coach house and fowl house. The linen bleaching mills, workshops and lofts were also extensive and are listed in detail. OS Memoirs of 1834 further enumerate Christy’s linen works which consisted of three wheels and a range of rubbing boards, wash mills and beetling engines. (OS Memoirs) Records show that Christy bleached about 15,000 pieces of linen in 1839. According to Rankin, John Christy continued to bleach at Mill Park after the Uprichards bought Springvale c.1830 and at the entrance to Mill Park is a gatescreen which is referred to locally as ‘Christy’s gates’. (Rankin) The Belfast Newsletter of 17th October 1851 carries an advertisement for the sale by auction of Mill-park bleach-green, described as ‘well supplied with water throughout the driest season and capable of doing a large business’. The mills, dwelling house, garden, offices and workmen’s houses situated in 83 acres are held under lease for ever at the yearly rent of £100.4s.9d.

The second edition OS map of 1860 shows that an extension, still present, has been added to the south-west corner of the building. The former bleach mill associated with the property has fallen out of use by this time and Griffith’s Valuation describes it as ‘dilapidated’. Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) shows that both Spring Vale and Mill Park bleach works are now the property of William Uprichard and the house, offices and garden at Mill Park are let to John Mathers at a valuation of £12 with a further £1.10s value placed on the acre of ground in which the house is situated. From this point, Mill Park House was associated with the bleach works at Springvale, its neighbour to the east. William Uprichard of Bannvale was the son of James Uprichard, who, with his brothers, had founded the company J T & H Uprichard by buying the Springvale bleach works soon after 1830. (Rankin)

The house was taken over in 1876 by Henry Albert Uprichard, William’s son. According to Rankin, Henry Albert Uprichard married Emily Green in the mid-1870s and they lived at Lawrencetown House and later at Elmfield. Henry Albert appears to have made improvements at Mill Park during his short stay and the valuation was raised to £17.10s in 1876. The occupier is then listed as William Uprichard until his death in 1884. However, as William Uprichard was living at Bannvale during this period, it is probable that the house was inhabited by an employee and indeed after Uprichard’s death, the house passed to David McWilliam, who describes himself in the 1901 census as the manager of the bleach green. McWilliam was an unmarried man of 54 who employed a cook/housekeeper from County Tyrone. The house then passed to Adam Coates, foreman bleacher, who brought his very large family to live at Mill Park. He and his Belfast wife list seven children between the ages of 9 and 22 in the census of 1911. Subsequent occupiers were Archibald McCormick (1919), James C Torrens (1944) and Hugh Service (1947) and it is likely that all these men were in the employment of Springvale bleach works.

The First General Revaluation of the early 1930s records the accommodation at the house. Downstairs was a square hall, two receptions, one with a large bay, a large kitchen, scullery, pantry and back stairs to the servants’ room. Upstairs was a small servants’ room over the kitchen, which was not used by this time, a landing and three ‘fairly good’ bedrooms, a bathroom with enclosed bath and WC, but there was no hot water supply. A plan and dimensions are shown of the house with Victorian extension to the south-west and scullery and outbuildings to the east. Electric light was supplied from the mill and the house was held rent free ‘by virtue of office at mill’.

In 1951 Mill Park was taken over by Henry Albert Uprichard’s grandson, also Henry Albert. According to Rankin, Henry Albert was left Lawrencetown House on the death of his father, but he, his mother Nancy and their butler Bobby Dawson chose to live at Mill Park where Henry and his brother tried to keep the bleach works going. The linen industry was in decline, however, and Springvale closed in 1955. (Rankin) A twentieth-century modification to the western facade dates from this period.

The house was last inhabited about twenty five years ago and has since fallen into disrepair. (Owner information)

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/26/1 First Edition OS Map (1833)
2. PRONI OS/6/3/26/2 Second Edition OS map (1860)
3. PRONI OS/6/3/26/3 Third Edition OS Map (1903-4)
4. PRONI OS/6/3/26/4 Fourth Edition OS Map (1903-20)
5. PRONI VAL/1/B/350 Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48A Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-D Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/12/F/4/2/9 Annual Revisions (1930-35)
9. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/3 First General Revaluation (1936-57)
10. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/V/4 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
11. Belfast Newsletter, 8th January 1782
12. Belfast Newsletter, 17th October 1851
13. Owner information

Secondary Sources

1. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down III, 1833-8, Vol. 12.” Belfast: Institute of
Irish Studies, 1992.
2. Rankin, K “The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley, The story of their families” Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A three-bay two-storey house with outbuildings built c.1780, extended 1876 and again c.1940. Some historic fabric and detailing survives, including the developed plan form. The house has associations with the linen industry and is of some interest. However, there are other, better examples in the area.