Major Uprichard

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Detached symmetrical two-storey rubblestone orange hall opened in 1928 in a converted mill building with possible 1786 origins, with gable-fronted entrance porch. Rectangular on plan facing north-west and set within its own small plot to the south of the A50.

Pitched natural slate roof with black clay ridge tiles, replacement extruded aluminium rainwater goods and uPVC barge boards. Two redbrick profiled wall-headed chimneystacks with terracotta pots to rear elevation. Random coursed and snecked rubblestone walling with squared flush granite quoins. Square-headed window openings formed in flush redbrick surrounds, granite sills and 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with margin lights and steel grills over unless otherwise stated.

Front (north-west) elevation is five windows wide to first floor with a central gable-fronted single storey entrance porch flanked by two windows to ground floor. Porch is built of rubblestone with redbrick dressings having pitched natural slate roof, terracotta finial and replacement extruded aluminium rainwater goods and uPVC barge boards. Replacement square-headed hardwood panelled door, overlight and sidelights with granite sills surmounted by a polished black stone plaque inscribed, 'Major Uprichard Memorial Orange Hall Tullylish 1928'; cheeks blank.

North-east gable has a central steel loading bay door to first floor directly over a square-headed vertically-sheeted timber door with sidelights and surmounted by an inscribed date plaque stating: ‘1844’.

South-east (rear) elevation has an irregular fenestration pattern; three windows to first floor, four to ground floor.

South-west gable is blank.

Setting

Set within its own small plot enclosed to the A50 by rubblestone walls with concrete coping and a single wrought-iron pedestrian gate on stone piers with red brick dressings and concrete capstones, hedging encloses the site to the adjacent lane and neighbouring fields. The hall is located adjacent to a row of single-storey terraced cottages to the south.

Roof Natural slate
Walling Rubblestone
Windows Timber
RWG Extruded aluminium

Historical information

Major Uprichard Memorial Orange Hall was opened in 1928 (modern datestone) in a converted mill building dated 1844 ( datestone) with possible 1786 origins and formerly part of the bleach/flour mill on the Mount Pleasant estate.

Buildings are shown on the site on the first edition OS map of 1834 captioned ‘Bleach Mill’ and forming part of the Mount Pleasant estate, an expansive bleach green before a mansion house. A range of worker’s cottages are shown nearby which have survived to the present day. The bleach mill is one of a series of such buildings stretching along the Bann from Mount Pleasant to Banbridge and beyond and which made Banbridge and its surroundings the most important inland industrial area in Ireland in its day. (Rankin) The building bears the date 1844 suggesting that the mill underwent some rebuilding/remodelling by the time of the second edition OS map of 1858. The mill is captioned ‘Flour Mill’ on the second edition and is one of a pair, the nearby Glen flour mill sited at the far edge of a mill pond from which three mill races run beneath the current building.

According to the OS Memoirs the Mount Pleasant bleach works were originally built in 1786. They may originally have been built by Thomas Christy of Moyallon and later belonged to George Darley. (Rankin) In 1825 the property passed to Isaac Stoney, linen merchant, of Dublin and Frankford, King’s County who was the owner until at least 1853 when the estate came under the jurisdiction of the Irish Encumbered Estates Court. (PRONI)

The Townland Valuation (1828-40) lists the property as a bleach mill and offices valued at £74.6s and at the time this was the largest bleach mill in the townland. There were two water wheels each fourteen feet in diameter. The larger wheel, 6 feet wide, drove two double beetling engines and the smaller three feet 6 inches in width, drove four double wash mills, three pairs of rubbing boards and four pumps. Other structures on the site included a drying house, coal house and joiners shop.

The Mount Pleasant estate was purchased by George Mullen and Thomas Malcomson in the 1850s and the mill buildings were partially converted for processing flour. The flour mill was valued in Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) at £75 and was a four storey building 24x10 yards with a two-storey return 10x7½. An ‘old store’ is also listed at 7x8½ yards. The mill contained five pairs of French burrs and two sets of elevators but no cleaning or dressing machinery as the dressing was done in the nearby Glen Flour Mill. A beetling mill, driving four beetling engines remained on the site, valued at £18, but, apart from 1860, the mill had been idle for the previous 12 years. (Griffith’s Valuation)

Valuation records note that the flour mill was ‘not working’ in 1868 and the valuation was reduced to £63. The mill was taken over by Thomas Haughton in 1885 and is noted to be vacant in 1891 when the valuation was reduced to £35. In 1896 the valuation was reduced again to £25 as it was noted that the mill was ‘at rest’ and part of it had been ‘removed’. In 1919 the mill was taken over by Mark Beck and was restored for use as a flax mill, the valuation consequently rising to £30. However, this new lease of life was short-lived and the mill was ‘in ruins’ by 1925 when the valuation was reduced to £2.

The building was re-designated an Orange Hall in 1930 when the valuation was raised to £4.10s. The secretary was John Sterritt (1931) then Samuel Devlin. In the First General Revaluation 1936-57) the Orange Hall, Caretaker’s Apartments and garden were revalued at £9 and the accommodation was said to comprise, on the ground floor, living quarters for the caretaker including a kitchen, small sitting room and one bedroom. Additionally on the ground floor were a small meeting room, understairs store and ladies WC. The first floor was entirely given over to a large meeting room. A valuer’s plan from the same period shows the building with porch and a small corrugated iron structure to the rear containing earth closets and an engine house providing electricity to the hall.

The Orange Hall was named in commemoration of Henry Albert Uprichard, Managing Director of Forster Green & Co, the celebrated Victorian tea and coffee company founded by his grandfather. Henry Albert also descended from the Uprichards and Christys, two of the most prominent Quaker linen dynasties in the Bann Valley. In the early twentieth century Uprichard lived at Bannvale House and was Commander of the 2nd Battalion of the West Down Regiment of the Ulster Volunteer Force. Uprichard was killed in action while serving with the Ulster Division at Thiepval on 1st July 1916. He had been a well-known polo player, rode at point-to-point and steeplechase meetings and hunted with the County Down staghounds and the Iveagh Harriers. (Rankin)

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/3/48A – Griffith’s Valuation (c.1861)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1930)
8. PRONIVAL/3/C/4/3 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
9. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/M/3 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
10. PRONI D607/D/420 – Letter from George Darley Mount Pleasant (1796)
11. PRONI D1248/L/360 – Lease to George Darley, Mount Pleasant (1819)
12. PRONI D1918/2/18 – Letter re death of George Darley (1825)
13. PRONI D1201/23 – Irish Encumbered Estates rentals (1853)
14. PRONI D4183/29/3 – Renewal lease to Isaac Stoney, Mount Pleasant (1846)

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

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Detached symmetrical two-storey rubblestone orange hall with gable-fronted entrance porch, dating from 1844, converted to a hall in 1928. Rectangular on plan . A modest but solid example of a rural orange hall that appears to have largely retained its overall appearance as a mill building. However, it is not among the best examples of the type, although its historic association with Major Uprichard is of note.