Crozier House

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A two-storey with semi-basement and attic three-bay mid-terrace Georgian house built 1791; rectangular plan form. Located on Church Square, north of Banbridge town centre, opposite the Crozier Monument (HB17/07/011).

Flat-top natural slate roof with clay ridge tiles; parapet eaves with concealed rainwater goods; cast-iron ogee moulded rainwater goods to the rear; smooth rendered chimney with moulded cornice. Stucco rendered walling; rusticated channelling to ground floor; ruled-and-lined to first floor; raised long-and-short quoins; moulded stringcourse and plat band. Tripartite 9/9 sliding timber sash windows with 3/3 side lights; no horns; moulded surrounds and panelled pilaster frame rising to broken cornice course surmounted by segmental-pediments decorated with patera and festoons, dentilled moulded archivolt with acanthus leaf. Jamb mouldings drop beyond cill to plat band at basement level. 6/6 sliding sash first floor windows; no horns; moulded surrounds; painted masonry cills. 3/3 sliding sash attic windows; no horns; no surrounds; painted masonry cills. Raised-and-fielded eight panel entrance door with cast-iron ironmongery; flanked by 3-paned side light with blank aprons; plain pilastered frame rising to entablature decorated with patera and festoons surmounted by segmental pediment decorated with moulded plaque depicting figures under a tree with urn; dentilled moulded archivolt with acanthus leaf; moulded jambs.

The principal elevation faces northeast and is symmetrically arranged. Centrally positioned sweeping perron rising to ground floor entrance over basement trench; flanked by single ground floor windows; three first floor and attic windows directly over. Three basement windows. Blue plaque located to the ground floor right “CAPTAIN FRANCIS RAWDON MOIRA CROZIER DISCOVERER OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 1796-1848 LIVED HERE.”

The left gable is asymmetrically arranged; attic window to the right. Ground and first floor abutted by adjoining building (HB17/07/008).

The rear elevation is symmetrically arranged with 5 openings to each floor; basement, central and right bays fully fenestrated; left bay openings generally blind with exception of ground floor and attic left. Roughcast rendered; no mouldings; centrally positioned masonry perron rising to replacement rear door with margin paned transom light.

The right gable is asymmetrically arranged; smooth rendered; two narrow first floor windows to the right; two attic windows; the ground floor is abutted by 23 Church Square (HB17/07/010).

Setting

The former dwelling forms part of a terrace to the north part of the town, looking on to Church Square. Wrought-iron railing with cast-iron newels; moulded coping addressing the front entrance. Yard to the rear enclosed to the north and east by a night-club complex; of no historic interest.

Roofing : Natural slate
Walling : Stucco
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

Crozier House, originally known as Avonmore House is a three-storey Georgian Townhouse that was constructed in 1791 (Brett, p. 7). Avonmore House was constructed for George Crozier, solicitor and agent to the Earl of Moira; the Townland Valuation notes that the property was valued at £28 and continued to be occupied by Crozier by the 1830s. The Ulster Town Directories note that Avonmore House had passed into the possession of Crozier’s son, Thomas Crozier by 1843; Thomas Crozier was also employed as a Solicitor and practised in Dublin as well as locally. George Crozier was also the father of Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier (1796-c. 1848) who famously died whilst attempting to navigate the North-West Passage and is commemorated by a memorial situated directly in front of Avonmore House (HB17/07/011).

Thomas Crozier had vacated the family dwelling by 1852 when the Ulster Street Directory for that year recorded that he was residing in Dromore Street. Thomas Crozier continued to own Avonmore House and in c. 1863 Griffiths Valuation noted that Crozier let the house, which was then valued at £35, to a Mr. Robert Fennell; Fennell operated Robert Fennell & Co., a bleaching manufactory in the Banbridge area and resided at Avonmore House until his death in 1866. With her husband’s death the widowed Selina Fennell came into possession of the dwelling, residing there until 1871 (PRONI Wills Catalogue).

The next occupant of the property was Dr. John Hawthorne who was first recorded as occupant in the Annual Revisions in 1875. John Hawthorne lived at Avonmore House until his death in Nov 1900 at which time occupancy of the property came into the possession of a Dr. James Waddell (PRONI Wills Catalogue). The 1901 Census notes that Dr. Waddell (25, Presbyterian) was born in Japan and was a qualified Doctor of the Royal University of Ireland. The Census Building Return described Avonmore House as a 1st class dwelling that consisted of 10 rooms and possessed a number of out offices including a stable, cow house and a store.

Waddell was the son of a Presbyterian missionary to Tokyo and obtained his M.B. in 1899. Shortly after being appointed to Banbridge infirmary, Waddell volunteered for service as a civil surgeon during the Second Boer War (1899-1902) but died at Middleburg, South Africa in Nov 1905 (cause of death unknown; PRONI Wills Catalogue). Waddell received a medal at the front; his obituary noted that the Doctor ‘came of a fighting and enterprising stock which during the last two centuries has distinguished itself on many occasions in the service of the country ... [which] also included Captain Mayne Reid’ (1818-1889: Irish-American author) (The British Medical Journal, p. 1622). Waddell was also the brother of Helen Waddell, the famous medieval scholar and translator who resided at Kilmacrew House (HB17/12/11A) towards the end of her life).

After Waddell’s death in 1905 a number of occupants briefly resided at the address including a Dr. Redford and a Mr. E. S. Mills (the Ulster Street Directory notes that Mills was the Organist and Choir Master of Seapatrick Parish Church (HB17/04/001)). In 1910 Avonmore House fell vacant; the Annual Revisions note that between 1908 and 1913 alterations were carried out to the sites out offices which reduced the value of the property to £25 by 1913. In the same year the house was reoccupied when a Mr. William Stevenson came into possession. Stevenson was employed as a cashier and resided at Avonmore House until his death in 1937 (PRONI Wills Catalogue).

Avonmore House, now known locally as Crozier House, is most famous for being the birthplace and childhood home of Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier who was born there in 1796. Crozier joined the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars at the young age of 14 and quickly rose through the ranks. In 1821 Crozier (then a lieutenant) sailed with Captain William Edward Parry during the latter’s attempt to discover the North-West Passage. This expedition failed in its aim; however Crozier accompanied Parry on two further expeditions to the Arctic, in 1824 and 1827. Promoted to the rank of Commander in 1837, Crozier commanded the HMS Terrier during Captain James Clark Ross’s expedition to the Antarctic. In 1841 Crozier attained the rank of Captain and was appointed second-in-command during Captain John Franklin’s ill-fated expedition to chart the last unnavigated section the North-West Passage which embarked in 1845. The expedition was doomed when Franklin and Crozier’s ships became trapped in pack ice between September 1846 and April 1848; during this time Captain Franklin perished and Crozier took command of the floundering expedition. Crozier made the decision to abandon the trapped ships and escape south by sled, however both he and his men succumbed to illness and the elements. The abandoned ships were not discovered until the 1850s when the fate of the crew also became known. The west point of King William’s island, where the crew wintered whilst trapped between 1846 and 1848, was renamed ‘Cape Crozier’ in honour of the Banbridge Captain (Magennis; Newman, p. 54).

In 1969 Brett described Crozier House as a ‘most attractive house, quite apart from its historical associations with the Crozier family’ and noted that in 1968 the house was purchased by a Mr. Lloyd Cowdy who set about restoring the exterior in conjunction with the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society (Brett, p. 7). Crozier House was listed in 1976 and is currently utilised as office premises. A blue plaque was placed on the front of the property prior to 1969 and reads ‘Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier: Discoverer of the NorthWest Passage 1796-1848, lived here.’

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/1/B/348/A – Townland Valuations c. 1830
5. PRONI VAL/1/D/3/3 – Banbridge Town Plan c. 1830
6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/64/C – Griffith’s Valuation c. 1863
7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6/A – Annual Revisions 1864-1874
8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6/B – Annual Revisions 1874-1884
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/6/D – Annual Revisions 1885-1894
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7/A – Annual Revisions 1899-1910
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7/B – Annual Revisions 1911-1922
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/7/C – Annual Revisions 1921-1930
13. Ulster Town Directories (1843-1918)
14. PRONI Wills Catalogue (17 Sept 1866; 6 Nov 1900; 29 Nov 1905; 26 Jul 1937)
15. Census of Ireland (1901)
16. The British Medical Journal (16 Dec 1905)
17. First Survey Record – HB17/07/009 (1969)

Secondary Sources

1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘List of historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the Borough of Banbridge’ Belfast: Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1969.
2. Magennis, P., ‘Banbridge: An illustrated history and companion’ Donaghadee: Cottage Publications, 1996.
3. Newman, K., ‘Dictionary of Ulster Biography’ Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1994.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
H-. Alterations detracting from building
J. Setting
K. Group value

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
V. Authorship

Evaluation

A two-storey with basement and attic three-bay Georgian house built 1791. Its character and appearance, with stucco detailing intact, has survived. Historically the residence of Captain Crozier, a monument (HB17/07/011) to whom is located nearby. Crozier was a significant figure in the field of polar exploration, having been part of both Ross's and Franklin's expeditions to the North Pole, giving the house historic interest. Although compromised by loss of fabric and detail, it is a good example of this type of larger town house and of an early date.