Clonaslee, 2 Lurgan Road, Seapatrick, Banbridge, BT32 4AF

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Late Victorian two-storey-with-attic, red-brick detached house with veranda and decorative brick detailing, built c.1900 to designs by Henry Hobart and located on the west side of Lurgan Road in Banbridge. The entrance façade faces south, looking over mature landscaped gardens. Grounds on north side incorporate a two-storey, detached former garage with separate entrance from north boundary.

Pitched natural Welsh slate roof with decorative terracotta ridge tiles and finials; tall red-brick chimneystacks with chamfered shafts and tall clay pots; decorative bargeboards to gables. Fish-scale natural slates to veranda canopy and roll-leaded hips to canted bays. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods on projecting eaves with exposed rafter tails, cast iron downpipes and soil pipes with decorative wall-fixings. Walling is Flemish-bond red-brick on a chamfered plinth with decorative carved panels, string course with dentilled frieze at first floor cill level; decorative brick-work, including herringbone panel to gable apex. Windows are mainly single-glazed 1/1 timber sliding sash with horns and projecting sandstone sills (unless otherwise stated).

South Elevation

The principal elevation is comprised of a two-storey projecting gabled bay to right side, with three bays on left side. The gabled section has a canted bay window on ground floor level with natural slate fish-scale hipped roof and a centred bi-partite 1/1 timber sliding sash window above on first floor level. The gable apex has a decorative brick string course with brick-relief detailing above.

A decorative open timber veranda on the main south façade abuts the western face of the projecting gable. It has a natural slate fish-scale lean-to roof which is supported on square timber columns with decorative spandrels and drop finials; stone plinth is laid with square terracotta tiles.

The veranda gives access to the porch on right side, which has an original raised-and-fielded bolection-moulded six-panel varnished oak door with brass door furniture. There is a window opening to left side of the porch, within the veranda.

Above the veranda, on first floor level are two window openings. The window on left side sits below a gablet with pitched roof and terracotta finial. At roof level there are two flat-roofed timber-framed dormers, both with replacement uPVC multipane windows. A tall brick chimney is located between the two dormers.

The left side bay of the south elevation is a c.1960 extension which consists of a single window opening on both ground and first floor levels, with decorative string coursing, eaves and ridge detailing running through to match existing.

East Elevation

The east elevation has a two-storey canted bay to right of a single bay that has a single window opening to both ground and first floors, the first floor window opening below a gablet with terracotta finial. The ground floor window is a 1/1 timber sliding sash window and the first floor window is a bi-partite 1/1 timber sliding sash window.

Tall brick chimney located between gablet and canted bay.

Ground floor windows of two-storey canted bay have been altered with cill height raised and pipes to kitchen sink are visible within the raised brick.

Remainder of east elevation is set back from the canted bay; two storey section has two window openings to first floor and a window to ground floor right; panelled-and-glazed original timber door with two-pane transom light in a stop-end chamfered reveal, accessed by a bull-nosed stone step to ground floor left, plain overlight. Barometer attached to rear door frame.

Single storey section continues towards north and has a blank façade with bricked up window opening on left side.

North Elevation

Large gable to north is abutted on left side by single-storey red-brick return, and on right by a red-brick garage (c1997), re-forming a small courtyard (original wash-house, bathroom and scullery now demolished). The north face of the single-storey element has a single door opening on right side with an original timber sheeted door, and the modern garage up-and-over door opens towards the north.
The main rear elevation of the house has a single window opening on both ground and first floor levels, and two narrow window openings at attic level, centred below apex.

West Elevation

From left to right, the west elevation has a modern garage on left side with a single window opening with uPVC window and uPVC rainwater goods, then a two-storey section with three windows openings on ground floor level. On left side of first floor level there is a single window opening under a raised-eaves section of roof and a tall chimney immediately above.

To the right there is a multi-paned timber round-headed stairwell window with two metal casement opening lights to lower portion, rising above eaves height, with a hipped roof over. Small conservation-style roof light above.

Large two-storey extension (c.1960) on right side with large timber-framed tri-partite picture window to both ground and first floor levels. Timber barge boards match original house detailing.

Former Garage/Motor house

To north of site is a kitchen garden and a two-storey red-brick detached outbuilding (former garage), in similar style as the house with pitched natural slate roof with terracotta ridge tiles, timber bargeboards and finials to gable, and red-brick chimneystack. Three-paned timber-casement windows with projecting sandstone sills to each elevation; oculus at apex of each gable; original double-leaf timber panelled garage doors to east gable and timber-sheeted door with two-paned transom to south elevation. Single-storey abutment to west gable accessed by a set of timber steps to left and enclosed by a gable wall with stone coping to right. Remnants of former glasshouse remain on left side of south façade. The outbuilding can also be accessed from the road bounding the N side of the site which leads to a modern housing development. At the east end of this road is a set of modest stone gate posts with chamfered edges and a pointed coping stone.

Setting
Clonaslee is located on a large mature site on the west side of Lurgan Road in Banbridge. Bounded to road by rock-faced stone wall with stone coping (c.1974); entrance has square gate piers supporting original cast-iron gates (c.1974). Two-storey red-brick detached outbuilding on north side of site, with metal shed (former electric battery store) and timber dog kennels located along northern boundary. Modern housing development to west of site.

Materials
Roof: Natural Welsh slate
Walling: Flemish-bond red-brick
Windows: Mainly original single-glazed 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with horns, some uPVC replacements or additions
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

‘Clonaslee’ is a late-Victorian villa and linen manager’s house, first shown, captioned, on the fourth edition OS map of 1903-18. The house was built by Norman D Ferguson (1866-1960), linen manufacturer, beside the Ferguson linen concern at Edenderry on the outskirts of Banbridge. The villa, set in over four acres of land, enters valuation records in 1902 at a valuation of £48, and is dated by Rankin to 1901. In 1910, the valuation was raised to £58 following the addition of a detached two-storey garage and ancillary outbuildings (still present) to the site. Dromore architect Henry Hobart’s domestic revival design for the house incorporates decorative brickwork on the gable, in a pattern suggestive of Tudor timber-framing. (Rankin) The estimated total cost of the building was £1300. (Valuation records)

Norman Dickson Ferguson was the third son of Thomas Ferguson of Edenderry House and built 'Clonaslee' shortly after his father’s death in 1900 when his brother inherited Edenderry. Norman’s brothers Howard and Thomas worked in the warehouse, while he worked in the factory. The brothers were judged to be outstanding businessmen by their contemporaries and Norman in particular was respected for his ability and determination. Norman Ferguson was prominent in the local community, as was usual among the local linen manufacturing families, and became Chairman of Down County Council, Chairman of Belfast Ropeworks, a director of Banbridge Reservoir Company and a Deputy Lieutenant for County Down. Norman and his brothers introduced damask weaving at their Edenderry factory in the early years of the twentieth century, producing double damask for the North American market. This product eventually eclipsed their early trade in towels and drying cloths and by the 1930s the company were damask manufacturers. In the 1930s an associated company was set up - Ballievey Bleaching Co Ltd - which bleached, dyed and finished cloth for Ferguson’s and Samuel Lamont & Sons Ltd. During the Second World War the supply of flax was limited and Fergusons produced aeroplane cloth and other standard cloths under the Utility regime. After the Second World War the company passed to Norman’s two sons and one of his nephews to continue in the family until 1988 when the company was sold to William Franklin & Son who continue to use the name ‘Thomas Ferguson Irish Linen’ and are now the only linen damask weavers remaining in Ireland. (www.fergusonsirishlinen.com; Rankin)

Norman D Ferguson who was married with two children, was in the house alone at the time of the 1911 census, save for his County Louth cook and a table maid. (1911 census) The First General Revaluation of the 1930s gives a plan and dimensions for the house including the porch (also called a ‘piazza’) and attached outbuildings to the rear which have partially survived. Further outbuildings to the north, still surviving, included stores and a garage with a playroom over, and a greenhouse (now derelict). The internal accommodation of the house comprised seven bedrooms, three receptions, three bathrooms, a pantry, kitchen and scullery. The valuer thought the house ‘very substantially built and in excellent condition’ but the proximity to the mill was a disadvantage.

An extension was added to the western facade c1960 which alters the proportions of the front façade, adding a fourth bay. A single-storey garage/storage space has also been added to the northern façade in the 1990s, replacing original outbuildings and opening out what was once a courtyard of ancillary spaces to the rear of the dwelling.

‘Clonaslee’ continues as a domestic dwelling.

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/3/C/4/4 – First General Revaluation (1933-57)
4. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/2/A/9– First General Revaluation (1933-57)
5. 1911 census online

Secondary Sources

1. Rankin, K “The Linen Houses of the Bann Valley, The story of their families” Belfast, Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007
2. www.fergusonsirishlinen.com

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
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
U. Historic Associations
V. Authorship
Y. Social, Cultural or Economic Importance
X. Local Interest
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

'Clonaslee' is a gabled two-storey-with-attic three-bay red-brick detached house with veranda under slated canopy, built c.1900 to designs by Henry Hobart. A good example of a late-Victorian semi-urban villa by a notable local architect, there is interest in its similarity in style to nearby 'Dunida' at 9 Lurgan Road, Banbridge (HB17/04/025), also designed by Hobart. Well-proportioned, the villa’s architectural detailing is largely intact, a third bay being added to the front elevation to a careful design by Reside in the 1960s. Having undergone changes in accordance with the times - the addition of electricity and central heating - the house is of interest as a palimpsest of progress. The house and two-storey red-brick garage in similar style retain much of their original historic character and architectural interest. 'Clonaslee' is a house in mature grounds, with connections to the linen industry in the area and represents the ongoing expansion of Banbridge in the later Nineteenth century.

General comments

FILE PA'd 15/04/15