Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB17/01/001

Address :
Mount Pleasant 38 Banbridge Road Drumaran Gilford CRAIGAVON BT63 6DJ

Townland:
Drumaran

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Survey 2:
B+

Date of Listing:
25/10/1977 00:00:00

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
House

Former Use
House

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
No

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
No

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OS Map No:
201/14

IG Ref:
J0758 4882

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Owner Category

Exterior Description And Setting

A symmetrical two-storey three-bay house over semi-basement with attached farmyard, built c.1780 and located on the north side of Banbridge Road, to the east of Gilford village. The house is L-shaped on plan with a one-and-a-half storey annexe and later extension to west side. It occupies the south corner of a rectangular courtyard of outbuildings, and opens onto a walled garden at west. Pitched natural slate roof of mixed sizes (possibly of local origin), return with parallel ridge (M-profile to south-west elevation); angled clay ridge tiles. Front pitch concealed by a castellated parapet; rendered chimneystacks to each gable. Concealed valley gutters and cast iron downpipes. Walling is ruled-and-lined rendered with rusticated quoins, terminated by the parapet. Variety of windows (some with no horns) some with original crown glazing; principal elevation has tripartite windows comprising central 6/6 timber sliding sash flanked by 2/2, set in an elliptical headed architrave with plain tympanum; first floor windows are 6/6 timber sliding sash in moulded architraves. Remainder are 6/6 timber sliding sashes in plain reveals, unless otherwise stated. All windows have Mourne granite sills, those to principal elevation with paired brackets. Principal elevation faces south-east and is symmetrically arranged about a central door case; first floor is five windows wide, more closely spaced to outer bays. The main elevation is flanked to either side by (to left) a single storey extension with single window to right and nine (glazed) over two timber door to left up five steps with plain masonry guarding (to right) a carriage screen with three centred arched opening leading to the farmyard; both are castellated. Round arched principal entrance inset with Ionic doorcase and entablature, surmounted by a delicate iron spider-web fanlight; the nine-panelled timber door has original ironmongery including a lion’s head knocker, and is accessed by a granite perron bridging the basement and having five sweeping steps bounded by cast-iron railings. The basement has a six panelled timber door and 9-pane window to either side. South-west elevation is M-profile, with castellated parapets between gables concealing the valleys. There are three windows to first floor. Ground floor is abutted at right by a hipped roofed, cement rendered extension with twentieth century metal framed window insertion (abutted to south-west by a mono-pitched corrugated metal roofed concrete block built addition of no interest). To its left is an annexe with loft, having hipped slate roof and random rubble walling (some snecking to upper reaches) with roughly dressed quoins; two replacement timber 3/6 sliding sash windows with brick-dressed openings (that to left shows evidence of altered opening) ; loft lit by a modern rooflight. The annexe is abutted a further single-storey annexe, integrated with the west outbuilding range; this section has a lean-to slate roof raised in brick above the eaves line of the annexe. Replacement top hung window inserted into former brick dressed segmental-headed opening, infilled with rubble stone to right, replacement vertically sheeted timber door to left. Rear elevation is plainly detailed and comprises rear return to right and two-storey lean-to accommodating rear landing and sanitary quarters to left. Rear entrance is via a modern door with side light to the single storey, hipped roofed addition to right side. The return and rear elevation are lit by a variety of windows. The lean-to comprises (to left) two horizontal 4/4 sliding sashs with 3/6 sliding sash (exposed box) centred above (to right) tripartite window comprising three equally sized 9 pane windows with central pivot, and, to first floor landing, a triple gothic window with interlocking glazing bars and coloured glass. Rear return comprises two 3/6 top hung windows to ground floor with 6/6 sliding sash (exposed box) to first floor (left-hand-side). North-east face of rear return comprises a tripartite window (6/6 sliding sash flanked by 2/2) to ground floor left;3/6 sliding sash with exposed box to ground floor right; 4/8 sliding sash with recessed box to first floor. The north-east elevation is lit by a single window to first floor right; the rear lean-to wall has been raised and castellated, and contains a single replacement timber Gothic window. The courtyard is enclosed on all sides by ranges of stables, a barn and stores. North-west range is a two-storey barn with pitched slate roof; central clock tower with weather vane; rubble stone walls; uPVC windows with granite sills and brick lintels; quoin stones are dressed; doors are vertically sheeted timber. To left are a pair of segmental-arched coach arches; otherwise five doors including two loft doors, those to ground floor with granite plinth blocks and thresholds. To its left is an open double-height cart house, with internal access to the walled garden. To north-east side are single storey rubble stone stables, and to south-east is a single-storey rubble stone shed, each with replacement corrugated metal roof and doors. Setting: The house occupies an elevated site surrounded by mature trees and is accessed by a long tarmacadamed lane leading to a gravel forecourt. It has extensive views over surrounding farmland. The entrance is marked by square piers of dressed granite with moulded cap, flanked by replacement granite-faced walls. The walled garden now contains a lawn, and is bounded by a tall rubble stone wall, raised with brick and containing timber access gates. There is a modern farmyard to rear. Roof: Natural slate Walling: Render Windows: Timber RWG: Valley gutters, cast iron downpipes.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

Mount Pleasant was built as a substantial residence for the wealthy proprietor of a linen bleaching business and remained the home of linen bleachers for more than a hundred years. It constitutes one of a series of such houses along this part of the Bann. It is likely that Mount Pleasant was built for George Darley, owner of the nearby bleach works in the late eighteenth century, certainly Darley is noted in original sources to have been the owner of a house called ‘Mount Pleasant’ between at least 1796 and 1819. (PRONI) Rankin asserts that the present owners have documents which give the date of the original building on the site as 1760 and which indicate that Thomas Christy of Moyallon built a house here on land belonging to Sir Richard Johnston of Gilford Castle. (Rankin) However, the appearance of the present building is more consistent with a late eighteenth century date rather than the earlier date that has been postulated. According to the OS Memoirs (1834) bleach works at Mount Pleasant were built in 1786, and were the property of George Darley until his death in 1825. It appears likely that the present house was built at around the same time. In 1825 the property passed to Isaac Stoney, linen merchant, of Dublin and Frankford, King’s County who was the owner until at least 1853 when the estate came under the jurisdiction of the Irish Encumbered Estates Court. (PRONI) Isaac Stoney is listed as the occupier in the Townland Valuation of 1828-40 and dimensions are given for the house, cellar, laundry, kitchen and outhouses, among which are a poultry house, coach house, cow house, stables and privy. Outbuildings are mostly single storey apart from the coach house which has rooms over. The house is rated first class and the valuation is £30.17s. The house and a stable courtyard to the east are shown captioned ‘Mount Pleasant’ on the first edition OS map of 1834. An extensive bleaching green is shown to the front of the house and a bleach mill and a flour mill are shown to the south, the flour mill apparently associated with nearby Glen House. The bleach mill and green is the first of a series of such premises strung along the Bann from Mount Pleasant to Banbridge and beyond. The flour mill has since been converted into the Major Uprichard Memorial Orange Hall. (Rankin) At the time of Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) the owner of the house was George Mullen and it is noted in the fieldbook that a ‘new house is in progress August 1863’. The valuation is raised from £30 to £42 on completion. Dimensions given in the fieldbook and the OS maps of the period suggest that the ‘new house’ largely followed the plan form of the old and that the house was in fact remodelled rather than rebuilt. In the early 1880s the house, bleachworks and bleach green and the nearby flour mill were acquired by Thomas Haughton and John Edgar, proprietors of the neighbouring Banford Bleach Works Company and by 1885 ‘Mount Pleasant’ became the residence of Mr John Edgar. In 1901 Edgar was living at the house with his wife and four children, his eldest daughter a teacher and his son an apprentice in the linen trade and the family kept a general domestic servant. The house was designated first class and had 15 rooms. By 1911 Edgar appears to have let the house to Anthony Cowdy, a member of a linen bleaching dynasty founded by Cowdy’s grandfather, also Anthony Cowdy, in Loughgall. Anthony Cowdy senior had moved part of his business to Banbridge in 1892 and lived at Millmount, Banbridge from 1902. His grandson at Mount Pleasant was also carrying on the linen bleaching business and lived with his English wife and three small children, the eldest of whom had been born in ‘Russian Poland’. The family kept a general domestic servant. (1901, 1911 census) By 1919 the long history of the house as a linen bleaching mansion came to an end when a new occupier took over the house, Mark Beck, a farmer and flour miller. In 1920 the valuation of the house and outbuildings was reduced to £28 due to what was deemed the ‘unsuitability’ of this former ‘gentleman’s residence’ for use as a farmhouse. A subsequent occupier was Andrew Smyth (1922), possibly a member of the well-known local family who were linen bleachers and merchants. In 1925 the house passed to John Hale and in 1937 to Hugh F Buller with a reduction in the valuation to £5.10s the same year, valuer’s notes commenting that the house was ‘very old’ and in ‘rather poor repair at present’ with rotten floorboards and woodwork. The accommodation at the time comprised 5 bedrooms, a dressing room, two receptions, a bathroom, kitchen, two pantries and a scullery. The house remains in use. References: Primary Sources 1. PRONI OS/6/3/26/1 First Edition OS Map 1834 2. PRONI OS/6/3/26/2 Second Edition OS map 1858 3. PRONI OS/6/3/26/3 Third Edition OS Map 1901-2 4. PRONI OS/6/3/26/4 Fourth Edition OS Map 1920-21 5. PRONI VAL/1/B/350 Townland Valuation (1828-40) 6. PRONI VAL/2/B/3/48A Griffith’s Valuation (1856-64) 7. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/25A-H Annual Revisions (1864-1930) 8. PRONI VAL/12/B/16/17A – Annual Revisions (1923-29) 9. PRONI VAL/12/A/3/9 – Valuer’s Notebook (1916-22) 10. PRONI VAL/3/C/4/2 – First General Revaluation (1936-57) 11. PRONI VAL/3/D/4/3/M/1 – Valuers RV Binders (1933-57) 12. PRONI D607/D/420 – Letter from George Darley Mount Pleasant (1796) 13. PRONI D1248/L/360 – Lease to George Darley, Mount Pleasant (1819) 14. PRONI D1918/2/18 – Letter re death of George Darley (1825) 15. PRONI D1201/23 – Irish Encumbered Estates rentals (1853) 16. PRONI D4183/29/3 – Renewal lease to Isaac Stoney, Mount Pleasant (1846) 17. PRONI D1136 – Business records of Banford Bleach Works (1845-1863) 18. “Proceedings of the Trustees of the Linen and Hempen Manufacturers of Ireland for the year 1817” Dublin 19. 1901 census online 20. 1911 census online Secondary Sources 1. Day, A. and P. McWilliams, eds. “OS Memoirs of Ireland, Parishes of County Down III, 1833-8, Vol. 12.” Belfast: Institute of Irish Studies, 1992. 2. 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 I. Quality and survival of Interior J. Setting

Historic Interest

X. Local Interest

Evaluation

Mount Pleasant is a two-storey three-bay house with late eighteenth century origins. The house is castellated, composed on a symmetrical plan and much original fabric survives, including evidence of remodelling in the nineteenth century, with additional minor works in the interwar period. The surviving courtyard of outbuildings and walled garden contributes to its setting. It is a good and unusual example of the range of linen houses in the Bann valley, demonstrating development throughout its history and has significant links with prominent local families.

General Comments

Date of Survey

14 September 2011