3 Seapatrick Villas

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Semi-detached single-bay one-and-a-half-storey pebbledashed house, built c.1910, with canted bay window and single-storey side entrance porch. Rectangular on plan facing south. One of a group of eight semi-detached Domestic Revival houses named Seapatrick Villas on the east side of Banbridge Road.

Pitched natural slate roof with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles, decorative terracotta finials and a single rendered profiled chimneystack shared with the adjoining house. 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 and simulated rendered timber-framing to the gable. Camber-headed window openings with concrete sills and uPVC windows.

Single-bay single-storey front elevation dominated by three-sided canted bay window having hipped natural slate roof, detailed as per above, and painted ruled-and-lined rendered walling.

Gabled one-and-a-half-storey side elevation abutted by single-storey entrance porch. Replacement hipped artificial slate roof to the entrance porch with replacement plastic rainwater goods.

Rear elevation abutted by single-storey two-bay extension having hipped artificial slate roof, plastic rainwater goods, pebbledash rendered walling and uPVC windows.

East 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. Front lawn is enclosed to a disused footpath to the south by hedging, while the west part of the garden is open to the access lane of the group. This pair is identical to a further two pairs to the east, each having a front garden and small footpath. The access lane runs along the rear of these houses with each rear garden located to the north of the lane.

Roof Natural slate
Walling Pebbledash/cement render
Windows uPVC
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 three was David Myles followed by Henry Cheney, a 29-year-old cook who lived with his wife, two young children and two older step-children and his mother-in-law. (1901 census) The house passed to Samuel Gamble in 1917.

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.