Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB10/07/009 T

Address :
20 Alexandra Place, Sion Mills, Co Tyrone, BT82 9HR *** See General Comments***

Townland:
Liggartown

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Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:
17/01/1979 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:
15/06/2010 00:00:00

Current Use:
House - Terrace

Former Use
House - Terrace

Conservation Area:
Yes

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
72-16

IG Ref:
H3402 9308

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Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Attached end-terrace two-bay single-storey house, built c.1880, located to the west side of Melmount Road. Rectangular-on-plan with single-storey lean-to extension to west, (abutting north boundary wall of HB10/07/009S) added c.1995. Roof is pitched natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles over deep overhanging eaves; decorative timber bargeboards; smooth rendered chimney with concrete coping and replacement clay pots. Walls are painted roughcast over smooth banded plinth. Windows are timber casements in smooth rendered reveals; painted masonry sills. Principal elevation faces east and contains, at right, square-headed opening containing replacement panelled timber door with transom; single window at left; central gabled dormer to attic. South gable is abutted by HB10/07/009S. West elevation is abutted by lean-to extension; timber panelled entrance door at west; single window to north elevation. North gable contains single window at right at ground floor. House is directly accessed from street at east. Roughcast boundary wall with concrete coping encloses yard to rear; access through vertically-sheeted timber gate to north. Roof Natural slate Walling Roughcast Windows Replacement square-headed timber casements RWG Cast-iron half-round gutters and round downpipes

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

The building is part of a terrace dating from c.1880. The ground floor return has been remodelled and extended c.1995. The building is first shown on the third edition OS map of 1905 as part of a terrace of houses along Alexandra Place. Valuation Revisions of 1879 note that, ‘Houses [are] in Progress…1879’. Nos 3-20 are valued at £2 10s and are listed as ‘house, office and yard’ with various occupiers. Sion Mills was a company-owned town established by Herdman & Co., a flax spinning mill, run by the Herdman family as a model village for their workers and village maintenance staff, who all had an option for healthcare, until the village was privatised in the mid 1960s when the mills needed to raise capital during a slump in the linen industry. “Dwellings both single and two storey were built by the Herdman Family to house the new generation of flax mill workers of that day, who by 1853 amounted to ‘upwards of 500 in number.’ The cottages are part of a planned layout similar to the work of Sir Titus Salt at Saltair…. (Dept. Of the Environment, p.10). “The village was originally built consisting of simple, but well-built, one-storey terraced cottages to house the workers and to save them having to walk miles to work…Until the 1960s, the Mill trained and employed people to cover all the necessary trades needed to maintain and repair the village houses and surround as well as the Mill and its machinery, and the waterpower system. The householders were charged for rent and gas, paid per fortnight and raised occasionally. Over the early years the Herdmans provided a shop with very good fair prices and a dispensary. Workers paid a small payment from their wages, one penny per week in the early days – 6d. in the 1940s – towards health care and the Mill paid a Doctor and a mill nurse. The Herdmans also built a Doctor’s house and surgery in the Mill Lane at the end of the 19th century. The village had its own fire service and fire engine.” (Ferguson, p.91, 95). References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/6/10/1 -First Edition OS Map (1832-33) 2. PRONI OS/6/6/10/2 -Second Edition OS Map (1855) 3. PRONI OS/6/6/10/3 -Third Edition OS Map (1905) 4. PRONI VAL/12/E/182/1 -Town Plan of Sion Mills (1866-1898) 5. PRONI VAL/12/B/42/1A-F -Valuation Revisions (1860-1923) 6. PRONI VAL/2A/6/9A -Griffith’s Valuation (1858) 7. PRONI VAL/12/E/182/1 -Town Plan of Sion Mills(1866-1898) 8. PRONI VAL/12/B/42/1A-F -Valuation Revisions (1860-1923) Secondary Sources 1. Department of the Environment (Northern Ireland). “Sion Mills Conservation Area.” Belfast: H.M.S.O., 1977. 2. Ferguson, Celia, ed. “The Herdmans and Sion Mills, 1835-2005: Book One – The Early Years: A Collection of Letters, Photographs & Extracts from Documents and Books of Interest.” Sion Mills, Co. Tyrone: Sion Mills Building Preservation Trust, 2005.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

End of terrace one-and-a-half-storey house, built c.1880 as worker's housing for the local herdmans's Mill; located to the west side of Melmount Road. Due to alterations and extensions to this house and those in the adjoining terrace these small scale houses have lost a considerable amount of their original architectural character both individually and as a group. Their general massing and their historic interest mean that they still contribute to Sion Mills Conservation Area

General Comments

This record has been renumbered it was previously recorded with nos 1 - 19 Alexandra Place as HB10/07/009

Date of Survey

03 October 2009