1 Seapatrick Villas

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Semi-detached single-bay two-storey pebbledashed house, built c.1910, with full-height gabled bay window and single-storey side entrance porch. Rectangular on plan facing west. One of a group of eight semi-detached Domestic Revival houses named Seapatrick Villas on the east side of Banbridge Road. Currently empty.

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles, decorative terracotta finials and two rendered profiled chimneystacks. Overhanging timber sheeted eaves with timber bargeboards, exposed carved rafter feet supporting original moulded cast-iron rainwater goods. Pebbledash rendered walling with projecting smooth rendered plinth course, rusticated rendered quoins, smooth rendered sill band to the first floor and simulated rendered timber-framing to both gables. Camber-headed window openings with concrete sills and replacement hardwood casement windows.

Single-bay two-storey front elevation with full-height rectangular plan gabled bay window rising above eaves level. Smooth rendered walling to the ground floor of the bay surmounted by moulded render cornice and geometric smooth rendered window apron to the first floor window. Tripartite arrangement of 4/1 timber sash windows with ogee horns.

Gabled multi-bay two-storey side elevation abutted by single-storey entrance porch. Irregularly placed window openings as per above. Hipped natural slate roof to the entrance porch with roll-moulded terracotta ridge and hip tiles with terracotta ball finial. Moulded cast-iron guttering supported on exposed carved rafter feet. Ruled-and-lined smooth rendered wall with projecting plinth course and camber-headed window and door openings having replacement hardwood glazed door opening onto two concrete steps.

Formerly gabled two-storey rear elevation shared with adjoining house, now recessed behind the extension of the neighbouring house, with original timber bargeboard still in situ and two replacement hardwood windows to the first floor. Single-storey lean-to structure with corrugated iron roof abuts the rear elevation.

South elevation abutted by neighbouring house.

Setting

One of an identical pair built as part of a group of eight similarly detailed houses known as Seapatrick Villas and located on the east side of Banbridge Road. Lawned gardens to front and south of plot enclosed to the road by original rock-faced concrete block wall with original iron gates. Access lane to the remaining houses runs along the south of the plot enclosed by hedging.

Roof Natural slate
Walling Pebbledash/cement render
Windows timber
RWG cast-iron

Historical information

The current house is one of a small development of eight semi-detached dwellings built as workers’ housing by F W Hayes & Co, the proprietors of Seapatrick Spinning Mills. The houses were built in 1908/9 and are first shown on the fourth edition OS map of 1903-18, captioned ‘Seapatrick Villas’.

The first six houses, corresponding to numbers 3-8, enter valuation records in 1908 and the remaining two, which were slightly larger and were sited on the main Lurgan Road were added in 1909, the smaller houses with a valuation of £4.10s and the larger at £8.10s. Accompanying valuer’s notes give a plan of the buildings as originally constructed with a bay window to the front and porch to the side. Most of the houses have since been extended but originally had a yard to the rear with outhouses at the bottom comprising an earth closet and ashpit. The smaller houses, which were 18 feet in length were let by the company at 3s.3d weekly and the larger, 21 feet in length, at 6s weekly.

The first occupier to be noted in number one was Christopher Noddings, whose entry reads that he was paralysed, perhaps as the result of an industrial accident. His daughters, ranging in age from 13 to 32 were all millworkers and his 18-year-old son was an apprentice fitter. The house remained in the Noddings family until at least 1923.

By the 1930s the houses were being let to the millworkers at a low rent of 4s.5d per week for the smaller houses and 6s.10d for the larger. Electricity was supplied by the mill and 3d extra per week charged, water was supplied from a pump. The accommodation in the smaller houses comprised a kitchen, parlour, scullery and two bedrooms, while the larger had an extra bedroom and a lobby.

In 1834 Frederick William Hayes built weaving sheds on glebe land near Seapatrick Church, later converting the mill to linen thread production under the name ‘Royal Irish Linen Threads’. On the death of Frederick the business was taken over by his son William Hayes who began a programme of house building, putting up terraces of workers’ housing on Kilpike Road and a short terrace of management houses facing onto the Lurgan Road c1865. The next phase of house building associated with the factory took place around 1890 when a red-brick terrace of management houses, known as Milfort Terrace, was erected on the Lurgan Road, opposite Seapatrick Rectory, followed by a red-brick terrace of workers’ housing (Bannview Terrace). (Moore) The villas at Seapatrick were the last to be built during this phase and together with the housing built in Hayes Park in the 1910s were influenced by the concept of garden cities or villages which was then current. The idea of the garden city grew out of the desire of paternalistic industrialists to provide ideal spacious conditions for their workforce with low density housing surrounded by green spaces. (Ward) The houses continue in use as domestic dwellings.

References:

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/27/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1903-18
2. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1929)
3. PRONI VAL/12/A/3/6 Valuation Notes 1908/9
4. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/L/1– First General Revaluation (1933-57)
5. 1911 census online

Secondary Sources

1. Moore, TA “Thread making at Seapatrick” (available at raymondscountydownwebsite.net)
2. Ward, S V ed “The Garden City: Past, Present and Future” Alexandrine Press, Oxford, 1992

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Semi-detached single-bay two-storey house, built c.1910 built as one of a group of eight semi-detached Domestic Revival houses named Seapatrick Villas (HB17/04/026A&B;HB17/04/027A&B). Replacement windows, alterations and extension have compromised its historic character. Although of interest as an early twentieth-century example of suburban design, these houses are not among the best examples of the type and have been degraded by changes.