Edenderry House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An asymmetrical Italianate two-storey three-bay former country house, now school, built c.1865 to designs by William Spence and located on the site of a modern Grammar school to the north side of Lurgan Road in Banbridge. Rectangular plan with central break-front gable fronted by a large porch and abutted by campanile tower; single-storey box bay windows to front, two-storey canted bay to southwest and lower two-storey extensions (c.1950) to northwest and northeast.

Pitched natural slate roof with ashlar chimneystack and bargeboards to gables. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on paired bracketed eaves. Walling is rusticated limestone with plain ashlar sandstone dressings. Windows are replacement 1/1 timber sliding sash in moulded sandstone architraves with continuous sills; box bay windows to front with blind balustrades.

The principal elevation faces southeast; central break-front bay has round arched triple mullioned windows to first floor in projecting ashlar sandstone surround; porch lit to cheeks by bipartite mullioned windows in lugged surrounds; surmounted by a balustrade on paired consoles. Porch contains six-panelled entrance door in chamfered recess with brass door furniture and square-headed overlight (accessed via three bull-nosed steps). To left side of porch is corner square campanile, corbelled out from first floor level with projecting roof on profiled brackets, having paired round arched windows above roof-line at two sides and an elongated window at first floor. Left bay has a gabled mullioned window to first floor flanked by two diminutive windows; tripartite box bay window to ground floor. Right bay has gabled mullioned window to first floor and tripartite box bay to ground floor.

The southwest gable has a two-storey ashlar sandstone canted bay, lit by five windows to each floor; exposed section blank.

The northwest (rear) elevation is abutted to centre by a two-storey extension (c.1950) in cast stoner; exposed section blank.

The northeast elevation has a bipartite window to ground and first floor; abutted at right by a two-storey extension (c.1950) with three dormer windows to first floor and ashlar sandstone plat-band between floors.

Setting

The building has now been incorporated into the grounds of a Grammar School and is surrounded by modern school buildings, facing a large open playing field to front. Accessed from Lurgan Road at south by long tarmac drive with set of modern metal gates at the entrance.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: Rusticated limestone
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Edenderry House is a linen mansion constructed c.1865 to designs by William Spence for Thomas Ferguson, the proprietor of an important linen weaving concern. A house on the site first appears on the second edition OS map in 1860 which shows an L-shaped building situated off the Lurgan Road north of Banbridge. However, subsequent editions show that this house was radically remodelled. The contemporary Griffiths Valuation (c.1863) records that Edenderry House was let to Thomas Ferguson by a Mr. William E. E. Reilly and that the house was valued at £35. New outbuildings were in progress in 1863, suggesting that building work was ongoing throughout this period. Thomas Ferguson owned one of the largest Linen factories in Banbridge and in 1860 his ‘linen manufactory’ is depicted on the Ordnance Survey map as a number of buildings situated along the length of the River Bann to the south of Edenderry House; these factory buildings were valued at a total of £105.

By 1864 Edenderry House had been valued at £120, reflecting a radical remodelling which is reflected in a change to the arrangement and number of structures on the site on subsequent OS maps. During this period Ferguson also expanded his Linen factory; the 1903 map depicts a large factory and a number of smaller buildings along the Bann; Ferguson’s factory was valued at £320 c.1864 when both the factory and the house were undergoing a period of expansion (the value of the factory rose to a height of £410 by the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930).

In 1885 the value of Edenderry House was reduced to £90 after a reassessment of the site found the original value to be too high. Thomas Ferguson continued to reside at Edenderry House until his death in 1900; at that time Ferguson was also a magistrate for Banbridge, appointed as Justice of the Peace (PRONI Wills). In 1886 Bassett described Edenderry House as ‘the beautiful residence of Mr. Thomas Ferguson [which] forms one of the most conspicuous and pleasing features of the town’ and noted that Ferguson’s linen factory ‘Thomas Ferguson & Co. employed over 300 employees, most of whom were women (Bassett, pp 239-241). With Thomas Ferguson’s death in 1900 Edenderry House and the linen business passed to his son Howard Ferguson. The 1901 Census records that Howard Ferguson (39, Presbyterian) resided at Edenderry House with his wife Jeannie and a number of servants. The Census Building Return described Edenderry House as a 1st class dwelling which consisted of 20 rooms and possessed a large number of out offices including two stables, a cow house, dairy, piggery, store, laundry and a barn. Howard Ferguson was proprietor of Thomas Ferguson & Co. and continued to reside at Edenderry House until his own death in 1941 (PRONI Wills).

Magennis states that Edenderry House was built c.1865 by William Spence (c.1806-1883), a Scottish Architect from Glasgow, who designed the house in an Italianate style (Magennis; Dictionary of Scottish Architects). Rankin notes that Edenderry House was one of three houses built in the area by Spence, the others being Elmfield Castle and Gilford Castle (Edenderry House was built last and was also known by the name ‘Ferguson’s Castle’). The land on which the house was constructed was purchased in 1854 from William E. E. Reilly of the Reilly Estate of Scarva (Rankin, p. 61).

Thomas Ferguson established his first business in the linen trade in the 1840s and by 1855 had moved his factory to the purchased site on the Lurgan Road. Ferguson established the firm Dickson, Ferguson & Co. and adopted power loom weaving methods by 1866, expanding his factory in the process. An archway keystone to an engine room has the date 1866 inscribed upon it. Thomas Ferguson & Co. was established in 1884 after the Dicksons retired from business the previous year. After Thomas Ferguson’s death in 1900 the company continued to be operated by his sons who established the associated company Ballievey Bleaching Co. Ltd in the 1930s. During the Second World War the supply of flax was limited; however the company undertook military contracts to survive, producing aeroplane cloths and other materials for the war effort (Rankin, pp 56-57).

With Howard Ferguson’s death in 1941 Edenderry House passed to his nephew James Dickson Ferguson who administered the estate until 1947 when Edenderry House was sold by the Ferguson family to Banbridge Academy for £11,000 (Rankin, p. 62).

Banbridge Academy was established in 1786 as a private school and was originally located in a house on Library Lane. In the 19th-century the academy shared the premises of the Old Technical and Dunbar Memorial Schools before moving to the current site at Edenderry House. The possible purchase of Edenderry House was discussed by the Board of Governors of Banbridge Academy in 1947. For the ‘paltry sum’ of £11,000 they purchased forty odd acres and the ‘nucleus of a fine school’. Alterations were estimated at £30,000 and the school moved into their permanent home in 1950. The building ‘combined the dignity of an old mansion with the airy spaciousness of modern school buildings. The Banbridge Chronicle reported that the contractors, Messrs White and Co, of Belfast had ‘performed a herculean task in bringing about the conversion’. Building work continued until 1957 when the new school hall was completed to designs by Ferguson & McIlveen. The contractors were Messrs Thompson & Cherry. (Crowe)

Edenderry House was listed in 1977 and in 1988 Education Minister Brian Mawhinney gave the go-ahead for a £4.7 million extension plan at Banbridge Academy to provide modern facilities for subjects such as craft/design, technology, science and computer studies, part of a capital building programme throughout Northern Ireland. Some older school buildings were demolished and refurbishment was to take place in Edenderry House, the science block and gymnasium. Building was to be completed in three phases over two and a half years. The architects were WDR and RT Taggart of Belfast. (Dromore Leader) Further refurbishment and extension was undertaken in the early years of the 21st century. The architects were McAdam Design of Newtownards. (HB file)

Thomas Ferguson & Co. continued to operate until 1988 when the company was sold to William Franklin & Son Ltd; however the new owners continue to operate the former company under the name Ferguson’s Irish Linen in deference to one of Banbridge’s most successful linen manufacturing families (Rankin, p. 59).

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/1 – First edition Ordnance Survey map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/27/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1860
3. PRONI OS/6/3/27/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903-1918
4. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/64/C – Griffith’s Valuation 1863
5. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6/A – Annual Revisions 1864-1874
6. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6/B – Annual Revisions 1874-1884
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6/D – Annual Revisions 1885-1894
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7/A – Annual Revisions 1899-1910
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7/B – Annual Revisions 1911-1922
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7/C – Annual Revisions 1921-1930
11. Bassett, G. H., ‘County Down: One hundred years ago: A guide and directory 1886’ Belfast: Friars Bush Press, 1988.
12. Ulster Street Directories (1843-1918)
13. PRONI Wills Catalogue (24 Feb 1900; 26 Mar 1941)
14. The Irish Builder – Vol. 98, 10 Mar 1956.
15. First Survey Record – HB17/04/014 (1969)
16. Dromore Leader 10th February 1988
17. NIEA (HB file)

Secondary Sources

1. Crowe, W H “In Banbridge Town” Banbridge Chronicle, 1964

2. Magennis, P., ‘Banbridge: An illustrated history and companion’ Donaghadee: Cottage Publications, 1996.
3. Rankin, K., ‘The linen houses of the Bann Valley: The story of their families’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007).

4. Dictionary of Scottish Architects - http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building
I. Quality and survival of Interior

Criteria for listing: historic interest

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

Evaluation

An asymmetrical two-storey three-bay Italianate former house built c.1865 to designs by William Spence, now in use as school offices.
Much original detailing and fabric survive and it has important historical connections with the linen industry of the area. Modern extensions have compromised its setting, as have various modern school buildings and playing fields. The house remains a fine example of the type, along with many others in the district.