Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB11/16/010

Address :
Ulster Bank, 2 & 4 Main Street, Gortin, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT78 8PH

Townland:
Gortin

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Survey 2:
B2

Date of Listing:
17/12/2014 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Bank

Former Use
Rectories/ Manses etc

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
105-2

IG Ref:
H4922 8589

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Owner Category

Commercial

Exterior Description And Setting

Detached, corner-sited, three-bay single-storey stone bank building, built c.1845, facing south on the north side of Main Street, with a three-bay two-storey return. T-shape on plan, with a gabled front entrance porch (added c.1980) and a further side entrance porch to the west (Culvacullion Road). Pitched artificial slate roofs with black clay ridge tiles and stone ashlar chimneystacks with clay pots to all gables. Half-round cast-iron guttering to timber boxed eaves, decorative cast-iron hoppers and cast-iron downpipes with decorative trefoil brackets. Walling is squared and snecked random coursed stone with tooled stone quoins and red brick surrounds to all openings and to chimney flues. Windows are square-headed with stone sills, red brick surrounds and 6/6 timber sliding sash windows. Symmetrical three-bay single-storey front elevation with a central gabled entrance porch. Window openings appear to have replacement machine-made red brick surrounds and replacement timber sash windows, with a granite sill to the left, concrete sill to the right ATM machine inserted. Timer bargeboard to entrance porch and painted ruled and lined cement rendered walls. Elliptical-headed door opening with hardwood panelled door, glazed hardwood sidelights and fanlight. Door opens onto concrete paved platform with wheel-chair ramp to the left and a low rubble-stone wall with saddle-back coping and matching piers with pyramidal capstones, enclosing a small raised front area to the street. West side elevation is gabled with a single window opening to the left and a projecting flat-roofed entrance porch. The two-storey return is centred on the rear elevation with the entrance porch occupying the inner corner. All 6/6 timber sliding sash windows with ogee horns, and a three-sided canted oriel window to the upper floor comprising multi-pane timber casement windows (possibly replacement) with timber cornice above and resting on a large carved sandstone corbel below. The side entrance porch has a flat felt covered roof with timber fascia and plastic gutter to a decorative sandstone blocking course to eaves. The right cheek contains a square-headed door opening with replacement sheet-iron door opening onto concrete paved area enclosed to Culvacullion Road by a low rubble-stone wall with saddle-back coping and a pedestrian wrought-iron gate to the street. Rear north elevation comprises the large rendered gable of the return with sandstone ashlar quoins and chimneystack. A two-storey flat-roofed extension is visible to the left. East side elevation is a rendered gable with timber barge-board and sandstone ashlar quoins with a single square-headed window opening with 6/6 timber sash window. Setting:- Built as a rectory to the church occupying the opposite corner site (HB11/16/005) on the elevated west end of Main Street with a small enclosed paved area. A rubble-stone screen wall with concrete coping encloses the rear site extending from the rear return along Culvacullion Road. Abutting the east gable is a further screen wall (as above) with a timber door and a pair of steel gates giving vehicular access to the rear. Roof: Artificial slate Walling: Squared stone / Red brick / Painted render Windows: Timber RWG: Cast-iron / uPVC

Architects

Not Known Not Known

Historical Information

This is a former rectory built for St Patrick’s church (HB11/16/005) between 1833 and 1854 and remodelled for use as a bank in 1917-18. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and the Townland Valuation town plan of c.1834 both show a previous building on the site. By the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1854 the new rectory has been built, although it is uncaptioned. At this stage the old church of 1730 has not yet been replaced, as it was to be in 1856, and as can be seen on the third edition (1905/6), where the current building is captioned ‘Rectory’. The fourth edition (1953) shows that a porch has been added to the western façade of the building, presumably as part of the remodelling by Ulster Bank. A new building is now in use as the rectory, to the west of St Patrick’s. The Townland Valuation (1828-40) records the former building on the site as the residence of the Reverend Mervyn Wilson, the curate of St Patrick’s. The rector presumably lived elsewhere, although the diocesan history states that in 1856 there was no glebe or glebe house in the parish (Fawcett, Crooks and Leslie, p.106). This former building was valued at £10. The present building has been constructed by the time of Griffith’s Valuation in 1859 and is valued at £20.10s. The Rev. Charles Galway is the occupier and he leases the property from A.W.C. Hamilton. By 1874 the Rev. William James Christie is the occupier. Rev. W.J. Christie was the author of religious pamphlets, poetry and periodicals, some of which have survived, detailing his rather eccentric views. In 1887 Rev. T.J. Willoughby is the occupier and he remains so until 1916, apart from an interlude between 1897 and 1906 when the house is occupied by the dispensary doctor George R. Givens. The 1901 census records that Mr Givens occupied the house with his wife and a domestic servant and states that the house had 16 rooms and 3 windows in front. There were 8 out-offices. The house is just visible in a photograph in “Meetings and Memories in Lower Badoney”, showing that, when the building was in use as a house, the front porch was entered from the side and had a window facing the street. The 1911 census shows Rev. Willoughby again in residence and living here with his daughter and a domestic. The number of rooms has reduced to between 10 and 12 and the number of outbuildings has also reduced to a coach house, harness room, shed and store. By 1919 the rectory has passed into the ownership of the Ulster Bank. This branch of the Ulster Bank opened on 4 March 1918. Knox (1965) explains that “premises known as The Rectory were purchased from the trustees of the Beltrim Estate in April, 1917. Owing to strikes and shortages of building materials the reconstruction of those premises was delayed and the new office was not opened for business until 3rd May, 1918. The first manager was William J. Wilson.” (Knox, p.176). Valuation maps show that a new porch was added to the western façade of the building and it was also extended to the rear. In 1933 it comprised public and manager’s offices, W.C., cloakroom, strong room, kitchen, pantry, scullery, three r[eceptions], and five b[edrooms]. A plan and dimensions are given in the valuers’ notebook for this period. The valuation of the building is raised to £40 sometime between 1933 and 1935. In its appeal against this, the bank stated, “The house is very old and the repairs are very considerable. The whole property was bought at £460.” The valuer comments, “Originally I would imagine this property consisted of 2 or 3 old buildings which have been renovated at considerable expense and all joined up as one. The Bank office is very good – plenty of space and well lighted. Dwg part is spacious but very scattered and badly designed. Out-of-date in comparison with present day standards. Interior is in very good repair.” The front porch was rebuilt c.1980 and was glazed and given a pitched roof at some time after 1990, when the first survey photograph was taken. References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/6/18/1-First Edition OS Map (1833) 2. PRONI OS/6/6/18/2-Second Edition OS Map (1854) 3. PRONI OS/6/6/18/3-Third Edition OS Map (1905-6) 4. PRONI OS/6/6/18/4 –Fourth Edition OS Map (1953) 5. PRONI VAL/1/B/643 – Townland Valuation (1828-40) 6. PRONI VAL/1/D/6/9 – Townland Valuation Town Plan of Gortin (c.1834) 7. PRONI Printed Griffith’s Valuation – Union of Gortin (1859) 8. PRONI VAL/2/D/6/11 – Griffith’s Valuation Town Plan of Gortin (c.1859) 9. PRONI VAL/12/B/39/6A-E –Annual Revision Records (1860-1929) 10. PRONI MIC/354/6/32 – 1901 Census 11. PRONI VAL/12/E/178/1 – Valuation Town Plan of Gortin (1904 –[1908]) 12. PRONI VAL/12/E/178/2 – Valuation Town Plan of Gortin (1908 – [c.1935]) 13. www.census.nationalarchives.ie – 1911 Census online 14. PRONI VAL/3/D/7/8W/3 – First NI General Revaluation (1933-57) 15. PRONI VAL/3/G/150/1 – Valuation Town Plan of Gortin (1934-55) 16. PRONI VAL/3/G/150/2 – Valuation Town Plan of Gortin (1935-55) 17. PRONI VAL/3/G/150/3 – Valuation Town Plan of Gortin (1955-57) Secondary Sources 1. Christie, W.J. “Gospel Echoes – A Religious Monthly devoted to Righteousness, Temperance and Judgement to Come.” Gortin: 1885 2. Christie, W.J. “Notes on the Great Pyramid.” Gortin: 1881 3. Fawcett, F. W., D. W. T. Crooks and James B. Leslie. “Clergy of Derry and Raphoe.” Belfast and Londonderry: Ulster Historical Foundation, 1999. 4. First Survey Information, 1990 5. Gortin and District Historical Society. “Meetings and Memories in Lower Badoney” 1995 6. Knox, William J. “Decades of the Ulster Bank: 1836-1964.” Belfast: Board of Directors, Ulster Bank Limited, 1965.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

A. Style B. Proportion C. Ornamentation D. Plan Form J. Setting

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Detached, corner-sited, three-bay single-storey stone bank building with returns comprising a former rectory, built c.1845. This modest scale bank building was built as a rectory to replace an earlier rectory on the same site, located opposite St. Patrick's Church of Ireland (HB11/16/005). Although previously rendered, the fine quality stonework to the building and the boundary walls is of note. The alterations to the interior have compromised its worth but as an example of the development of a significant building in the village, and reflecting changes in its history, it retains much of architectural and historic interest.

General Comments

Date of Survey

06 March 2009