30 Market Square

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

An almost symmetrical two-bay three-storey mid-terrace commercial premises; built c.1830 and located to the south side of Market Square in the centre of Dromore. Rectangular plan with three-storey extension under cat-slide roof, and single-storey flat-roof extension to rear.

Pitched natural slate roof with blue/black angled ridge tiles, raised stone verges, and rendered chimneystacks to gables. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods on projecting eaves with cast-iron hopper and downpipes. Walling is painted smooth render with painted quoins to upper floors and band rustication to ground floor on a chamfered plinth; decorative carved panel above openings to ground floor and moulded string course between ground and first floor. Windows are timber-framed sliding sash with projecting painted sills; 3/6 to second floor, 6/6 to first and ground floor (with horns to ground floor); continuous sill to first floor windows; timber casements to rear elevation.

The principal elevation faces north and is four windows wide to upper floors; ground floor has a raised-and-fielded four-panel timber door to right of centre surmounted by decorative transom light with intersecting semi-circles; flanked by grooved pilasters with console brackets and segmental-headed pediment over. Entrance is flanked by two windows at left surmounted by a modern fascia, and to right, a modern panelled-and-glazed timber door with eight paned sidelight.

The east elevation is abutted to first floor by lower adjoining building.

The south (rear) elevation is abutted at left by the three-storey extension under cast-slide roof, having two windows to each floor; right by has a window at third floor. Abutted at ground floor right by the flat-roof single-storey extension.

The west elevation is abutted by an adjoining building (slightly lower).

Setting

Situated to the south side of Market Square facing the Town Hall (HB17/15/010A), street-fronted at the centre of a mainly mid nineteenth-century terrace. Accessed to rear by an alleyway to west; leading to a communal enclosed rear yard.

Roof: Natural slate
Walling: render
Windows: Timber
RWG: Cast-iron

Historical information

No. 30 Market Square, a three-storey late Georgian townhouse, was constructed c. 1830 appearing on the Townland Valuation town plan for Dromore (c. 1830) where it was depicted at the centre of a terrace lining the south-side of the Market Square, possessing a large rear return giving the structure a distinct L-shape. The contemporary Townland Valuations noted that the building was the dwelling of a Mr. John Martin and was valued at £10 10s. Martin resided at the site at the time of the Valuation, however shortly after the valuation took place the record was amended when a Mr. William Jardine came into possession.

By the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1859) there had been little alteration to the site which continued to be depicted as an L-shaped building. However, Griffith’s Valuation noted that the building had increased in value to £33 since the 1830s; the valuer records that Jardine had constructed a number of linen stores at the site explaining this increase. William Jardine was a linen manufacturer who established a hemstitching, bleaching and finishing factory at No. 30 Market Square which operated under the name William Jardine & Co (Ulster Town Directories). William Jardine leased the property on Market Square from a Mr. Robert Dickson, however the Annual Revisions note that Jardine did not reside near his factory but let Clanmurry house in the nearby townland of Quilly (HB17/13/019). By 1864 the Annual Revisions described the site as a house possessing a linen warehouse, stores and a shirt manufacturing factory; the value of the site was increased to £50 in 1879, however it is not known what caused the increase in that year.

Bassett included Jardine’s business in his 1886 directory of Co. Down stating that Jardine established William Jardine & Co. in c. 1843 and predominantly manufactured shirt-fronts and handkerchiefs. Jardine owned a number of factories in and around Dromore and employed around 275 women (not including between 50 and 100 of his staff who carried out their work at home) (Bassett, p. 389).
Jardine was recorded as occupant of No. 30 Market Square until 1886 when the site passed into the possession of a Ms. Eliza Jane Jardine (who also became occupant of Clanmurry in 1891), presumably after the death of William Jardine c. 1885, although no Will could be found. The 1901 Census notes that No. 30 Market Square was unoccupied; Eliza Jane Jardine (59, Unitarian) resided at Clanmurry with her nephew Charles McCaw Baxter (23), the census notes that Baxter was employed as the factory manager of the site at Dromore’s Market Square. In 1908 Jardine added a ‘bleaching, printing and dye works’ to the site raising No. 30 Market Square’s value to £75; this was further increased to £80 in 1911, however it is not known why this slight increase occurred.

A town plan dated 1906-c. 1935 shows that there had been little alteration to the layout of No. 30 Market Square since the 1830s; the building continued to consist of the current three-storey building facing the Market Square and possessing a large rear return or rear-adjoining outbuilding. In 1920 Charles Baxter came into possession of the factory at No. 30 Market Square whilst Eliza Jane Jardine continued to reside at Clanmurry House until her death in 1926 at which time her nephew took possession (PRONI Wills). The Baxter family continued to own No. 30 Market Square until at least the 1960s.

According to Rankin, William Jardine was a relative of George Crawford Lindsay (1813-1885), a linen merchant and local magistrate who resided at Moorlands (HB17/07/038); on a family tree Rankin includes, Jardine appears as Lindsay’s son but is married to an Elizabeth Simms Lindsay (obviously suggesting that Jardine married into the family). Rankin states that the Lindsay family originated from Scotland and settled at Tullyhenan in the aftermath of the 1641 Rebellion. In the 18th and 19th centuries the Lindsays established themselves as one of the most respected and connected families in the local Linen Industry occupying many of the impressive merchant’s manors in the area including Tullyhenan House (HB17/13/006), Moorlands (HB17/07/038), Ashfield House (HB17/13/014), and (through William Jardine) Clanmurry House.

Doloughan states that William Jardine established his business, William Jardine & Co. at No. 30 Market Square, but also bleached and dyed yarn at properties on the Lurgan Road. In 1929, when the business had passed to Eliza Jane Jardine and her nephew Charles McCaw Baxter, the dyeworks factory on the Market Square was destroyed in a fire, but the Hemstitching factory was not damaged in the blaze and no damage appears to have occurred to the three-storey dwelling (Doloughan).

In 1969 Brett described No. 30 Market Square as ‘a pleasant four-bay three-storey stone and stucco house of about 1835’ (Brett, p. 25). The current edition of the Ordnance Survey map (1973) depicts a number of offices to the rear of the building, however all the former outbuildings to the rear of the site have been taken down; there is also no trace of the former linen stores or factory that used to be located on the site. No. 30 Market Square was listed in 1977 and since that time has been converted into office space, currently housing the offices for the Dromore Leader, Dromore’s local newspaper.

References

Primary Sources

1. PRONI OS/6/3/21/1 – First Edition Ordnance Survey map 1833
2. PRONI OS/6/3/21/2 – Second Edition Ordnance Survey map 1859
3. PRONI OS/6/3/21/3 – Third Edition Ordnance Survey map 1903
4. PRONI OS/6/3/21/4 – Fourth Edition Ordnance Survey map 1919-20
5. PRONI VAL/1/D/3/13 – Townland Valuation map c. 1834
6. PRONI VAL/1/B/342 – Townland Valuations c. 1830
7. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/38A – Griffith’s Valuation 1861
8. PRONI VAL/12/E/122/3/4 – Annual Revisions Town Plan 1906– c. 1935
9. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10A – Annual Revisions 1864-1878
10. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10B – Annual Revisions 1879-1891
11. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/10C – Annual Revisions 1892-1898
12. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/11A – Annual Revisions 1899-1910
13. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/11B – Annual Revisions 1911-1919
14. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/11C – Annual Revisions 1920-1930
15. PRONI Wills Catalogue (26 Apr 1926)
16. Bassett’s Directory of Co. Down (1886)
17. Census of Ireland (1901 / 1911)
18. First Survey Record – HB17/15/015 (1969)
19. Ordnance Survey map – 202-4 (1973)

Secondary Sources
1. Brett, C. E. B., ‘Historic buildings, groups of buildings, areas of architectural importance in the towns and villages of Mid Down: Hillsborough, Dromore, Dromara, Ballynahinch, the Spa, Drumaness and Saintfield’ Ulster Architectural Heritage Society, 1974.
2. Doloughan, A., ‘Dromore old mill race’ Dromore: Dromore and District Local Historical Group, 1993.
3. Rankin, K., ‘The linen houses of the Bann Valley: The story of their families’ Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation, 2007).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
D. Plan Form
H-. Alterations detracting from building

Criteria for listing: historic interest

R. Age
S. Authenticity
X. Local Interest

Evaluation

An almost symmetrical two-bay three-storey mid-terrace commercial premises; built c.1830 and located to the south side of Market Square in the centre of Dromore. Much architectural detailing remains, including the original doorcase and a variety of glazing. Prominently situated, the building has group value with the Town Hall (HB17/15/010A), opposite. A good example of late-Georgian architecture, representative of the early development of Dromore. With many of its original architectural details remaining, it is of special architectural and historic interest.

General comments

New listing criteria R & S to be added when available. NO'R 02.10.13