8 Church Street

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey four-bay Victorian mid-terrace house, built pre 1833 and located to the north side of Church Street in Banbridge town centre. Rectangular plan with return to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles and rendered chimneystacks with tall terracotta pots. Cast iron-half-round rainwater goods. Walling is painted smooth render on a contrasting plinth. Windows are replacement uPVC throughout.

The principal elevation faces south-west and is four windows wide to first floor. Entrance door to left of centre comprising raised-and-fielded four panel timber door flanked by timber side-panels and surmounted by a plain segmental-arched overlight, all in a doorcase flanked by fluted pilasters with entablature and cornice. Entrance door is flanked by a window; former square-headed carriage-arch now with modern garage doors to far right.

The north-west elevation is abutted by the adjoining building (HB17/04/010F).

The north-east (rear) elevation was not viewed.

The south-east elevation is abutted by adjoining building (HB17/04/010D).

Setting

Street-fronted and forming part of an early-nineteenth century terrace adjacent to Seapatrick Parish Church (HB17/04/001).

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Render
Windows: uPVC
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

The building originated as a single-storey dwelling house pre 1833, and served for some years as the manse to Scarva Street Presbyterian Church. In the later nineteenth century the house was raised and remodelled and in the 1900s briefly became home to the curates of Seapatrick parish.

The Church Street terrace, of which the current building forms a part, dates from between c.1800 and c.1865 but primary evidence suggests that the terrace was built up around a core of simpler buildings dating from the earliest days of the establishment of the town. As Banbridge has grown, the terrace was rebuilt and improved, reflecting the boom in the town’s fortunes brought by the growth of a worldwide linen trade.

Early maps of Banbridge are often highly stylised and open to a degree of interpretation but a 1703 map of the ‘Bann Crossing’ shows a single-storey three-bay dwelling in the vicinity of the current terrace which may well have been the first building on the site. A new bridge was erected across the Bann in 1712 and in subsequent years the town began to grow as a centre of the linen industry, holding the largest fairs for linen cloth in the County of Down by 1744. By this time the town was the property of Wills Hill, Earl of Hillsborough who laid out the streets and encouraged people to build by granting sections of land at nominal rents in perpetuity added to which were ‘town parks’ or small farms in the neighbourhood of the town. (Linn; Magennis) Maps of 1755 and 1771 show buildings on the site as does the first edition OS map of 1833 but there are gaps in the terrace at this stage and valuation records show that the current building was subsequently rebuilt/remodelled. The current house is shown as rectangular on plan with a yard and garden to the rear.

The single-storey house and yard is listed in the Townland Valuation of 1828-40 as the home of Simon Patterson Jameson and is valued at £7. The house remains single-storey at the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) and is now occupied by Rev. Robert Anderson and valued at £13 and £1for the yard. This house and its neighbours to the north are leased from Rev J Montgomery. Rev Robert Anderson became minister of the newly-built Scarva Street Presbyterian Church in 1830 and remained until his death in 1872. (Boyd) Although a manse fund was started in Rev Anderson’s lifetime, it was not until after his death that a house was purchased adjoining the grounds of the church and from the 1870s the ministers of Scarva Street lived in the new manse. (Boyd; History of Congregations)

The house may have been raised and improved during the period it served as a manse but the alterations are unfortunately not recorded in Annual Revisions. In 1873 the house was taken over by Moses Thompson and subsequent occupants were Rev Berford (1879) Hugh Suffern (1881) Mrs Bambrick (1884) William J McCarrison (1887) and Mrs James Mackey (1901). The 1901 census records Mary Jane Mackey as a widow who ran the premises as a boarding house. Her three boarders, all single women in their 20s and 30s were a general servant, a millworker and a dressmaker. The house then briefly became a curatage, home to curates of Seapatrick parish Rev W E Hurst (1907) and Rev Richard Crawford (1909). W E Hurst and Richard Crawford were curates in 1902-3 and 1907-8 respectively (Clergy of Down and Dromore). At the time of the 1911 census the occupier was 53-year-old John McAleavey, provision merchant, who lived with his wife of two years, Margaret. The house had nine rooms and was of the first class. John McAleavey died in 1926 and his widow Margaret (1927) continued to live at the house (Will of John McAleavey). A photograph taken of Church Street in 1911 has survived, showing that the house has had two storeys for at least the last hundred years. The photograph also shows that the door surround was not present in 1911 and is a subsequent addition. The windows to the front facade had been replaced by the time of the first survey in the 1980s.

At the time of the First General Revaluation in the 1930s Margaret McAleavey occupied the house rent free as a relative of the owner Elizabeth McAleavey. The house was revalued at £17 then £18.10s. The accommodation comprised four bedrooms, two receptions, a kitchen, scullery and bathroom. The valuer commented that the house was in ‘fair condition’ but poorly planned since the bathroom was accessed through the kitchen. The plan and dimensions show the house and to the rear a scullery of wood and felt, returns, a coal house, store, earth closet and shelter.

Subsequent occupiers were John Walter Wright (1943) and Peter McConville (1947). The house remains in use as a domestic dwelling.

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 /1/B/348A Townland Valuation (1828-40)
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/64C Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64)
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7A-C Annual Revisions (1899-1930)
9. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/4 First General Revaluation (1936-57)
10. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/2/A/5 First General Revaluation (1933-57)
11. PRONI Will of John McAleavey, died 9th February 1926
12. PRONI D695/M/1 Banbridge 1703
13. PRONI D695/M/2 County Down 1755
14. PRONI D671/M/1/7 Banbridge 1771
15. Belfast Newsletter 27th October 1862
16. Pigot & Co Directory 1824
17. Belfast Directory 1841/2
18. Post Office Directory 1843

Secondary Sources

1. “A History of Congregations in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland 1610-1982” authorised by the General Assembly of the
Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Belfast: Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland, 1982 (available at
www.presbyterianhistoryireland.com)
2. Boyd Rev T “Scarva Street Congregation 1830-1930” Banbridge Chronicle, 1930
3. Linn, Captain R “A History of Banbridge” (edited by W S Kerr) Banbridge Chronicle Press, 1935
4. Magennis, P “Banbridge, An Illustrated History and Companion” Donaghadee, Cottage Publications, 1996
5. Rankin, K “The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley, The story of their families” Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007
6. Young, A F and Quail, D “Old Banbridge” Stenlake Publishing, 2002

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A two-storey four-bay Victorian mid-terrace house, built pre 1833. The original doorcase and chimneystacks have been retained, allowing the building to retain something of its former character. However, extensive alterations and renovations have seriously compromised its historic interest. Although it is located in a terrace here, it was not built as part of it. The building is of a common type and not among the best examples.

General comments

Previously HB17/04/010