98 Halfway Rd, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4HB

Former Linen Factory and Chimney, mid-1860s, Edenordinary, Banbridge

This is a former linen industry complex comprising two- and three-storey brick factory buildings and a freestanding chimney, dating from the mid-1860s, set within a farmyard adjoining an associated dwelling house. The buildings incorporate fabric from an earlier masonry structure and were used successively as a yarn store and, from the late 1890s, a hemstitching factory producing handkerchiefs, napkins and similar goods. Operations had ceased entirely by 1935. The complex is of considerable industrial archaeological interest, reflecting the economic importance of the linen trade — specifically handloom weaving and hemstitching — in this part of County Down during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The extensive use of brick here in the 1860s is historically significant. At this period, brick was generally confined to minor elements such as quoins, dressings around openings, and eaves courses; its use across the main fabric of these buildings is unusual. More remarkable still, the bricks are believed to have been hand-made and fired on site from local clay, at a time when brick construction only became widespread with the arrival of mass-produced, machine-made brick later in the 19th century. Although the original engine house no longer survives, the chimney records its former presence and remains a distinctive local landmark. Both the chimney and the factory block share group value with the adjoining dwelling house.

The complex is organised north–south across the middle of the farmyard and consists of two main buildings (referred to here as Buildings 1 and 2) and the chimney to the west.

Building 1

Building 1 is the earlier structure and is itself composed of two sections: a three-storey southern section (1A) and a two-storey middle section (1B), both erected at the same time with no wall break between them and first recorded in the Valuation Revision Books for 1864–68, where the premises are described as a yarn store measuring 7 yards by 10 yards by 3 storeys, and 13 yards by 10 yards by 2 storeys. These figures correspond closely with 2012 measurements of 32 feet 4 inches by 22 feet 9 inches for section 1A, and 46 feet 3 inches by 22 feet 9 inches for section 1B.

Section 1A is a three-storey, single-bay unit. The east and west elevations are four openings wide and the south elevation is two openings wide. According to the owner, this section served as the factory office. It has a hipped natural slate roof with skylights to both pitches, all fitted with 3-by-2-pane metal frames. A chimney formerly sat on the apex of the south gable but has been removed and the roof slated over. Rainwater goods are galvanised steel half-round on an advanced brick eaves course.

The ground floor walls of the south and west elevations incorporate random rubble blackstone from a previous building on the site, with dark red brick quoins. The upper floors and the entire east elevation are of dark red brick throughout. All openings are trimmed with brick, have flat heads, and are surmounted by shallow segmental relieving arches. Windows retain ashlar stone cills where these survive, and most openings have been infilled with concrete blocks.

The principal elevation faces east towards the adjoining house. At ground floor level there is a window to the left and two doorways. The left-hand window is a 6-over-6 sliding timber sash with security bars, possibly original. The middle doorway has a beaded tongue-and-groove door with slit vents. The right-hand doorway is fitted with a vee tongue-and-groove door within a semi-elliptical brick-arched opening that is partly infilled with brick; although this infill brick matches the rest of the building it is likely recycled from a demolished structure elsewhere in the yard, as the door head is of concrete indicating a later insertion. The first floor has a loading door and three 6-over-6 timber sash windows; the second floor has four 3-by-4-pane top-opening timber windows aligned with the openings below. The west elevation has four infilled window openings to all floors, all aligned. A steel fuel tank on concrete block piers abuts the right-hand end.

Abutting the south elevation at ground floor level is a small single-storey, single-bay lean-to contemporary with the main block, as confirmed by the absence of a wall break on the west elevation. This lean-to has a monopitched natural slate roof with no rainwater goods, dark red brick walls with an advanced eaves course. The east gable is cement-rendered and contains a vee tongue-and-groove door; the south elevation is blank; the west gable contains a small infilled window. The exposed ground floor wall of the main south elevation to the right of this lean-to retains the upper half of a 6-over-6 sash window, with two further windows to each of the upper floors, all in alignment.

Section 1B continues northward from 1A as a two-storey, single-bay section of the same date. The hemstitching works were located here from the late 1890s. It has a pitched natural slate roof with steel rainwater goods. Ground floor walling on the west elevation is rubble blackstone, while the first floor and the entire east elevation are of dark red brick with an advanced eaves course, matching 1A.

The east elevation has six openings to each floor. At ground floor level there are four doors, one to each internal room; one of these is double-leaf with a semi-elliptical relieving arch over it. There is also a small 2-by-2-pane timber window at the right-hand end. The first floor has four windows — three of which are 6-over-6 sliding timber sashes — and two loading doors, one fitted with a beaded tongue-and-groove door on a sandstone footstep.

On the west elevation at ground floor level there is an infilled window to the right. The first floor has six openings, the two at the left end being partly obscured by a modern lean-to cattle byre abutting the west side. Of the exposed section: a tongue-and-groove door at the left (possibly inserted into an enlarged original window opening), then two window openings, then a door inserted into a window opening at the right. Immediately to the right of the left-hand door is a small galvanised metal ventilation cowl, probably in a later opening. The modern lean-to cattle byre — a high single-storey, single-bay structure with a monopitched corrugated metal roof and cement-rendered concrete block walls — occupies the site of the now-demolished steam engine house.

Building 2

Building 2 is a two-storey, two-bay structure abutting the north end of section 1B and standing slightly taller. A clear wall break confirms it is a later addition to Building 1, though documentary evidence suggests it is also of mid-1860s date. According to the owner, it was used for stabling and continues to be so used. It has a pitched natural slate roof with steel rainwater goods. The west elevation and the ground floor of the north gable are of rubble blackstone, but all other walling is dark red brick with brick quoins. All openings have flat heads with shallow relieving arches.

The east elevation is six openings wide at ground floor level: three are window openings (the one at the right-hand end fitted with a 1-by-3-pane metal frame, the others probably originally shuttered); the remainder are doors, all tongue-and-groove sheeted, with the leftmost being a sliding door. The first floor has five windows and a loading door; one window opening is shuttered and the one at the right-hand end has a 1-by-3-pane metal frame.

The west elevation is seven openings wide at ground floor level: six are small rectangular openings, and the seventh, at the right-hand end, is blocked by the modern lean-to. The first floor has three windows — including one at the right-hand end also blocked by the modern lean-to — and a half-door sheeted in tongue-and-groove boards, now accessed by a later vertical steel ladder. The north gable has three narrow slit vents at ground floor level and is otherwise blank.

The Chimney

On the west side of the farmyard stands a freestanding, slightly tapered, dark red brick chimney of square cross-section, probably contemporary with Buildings 1 and 2. It has an advanced instepping brick crown. At ground level on the south side is a small segmental-headed flue opening from the steam engine boiler, and higher up on the west side is a draught flue. The brickwork has been repointed by the present owner. The chimney is abutted on all sides by corrugated iron farm outbuildings.

Historical Background

A block corresponding broadly to the present footprint is shown on both the 1833 and 1860 Ordnance Survey maps. However, the 1861 Valuation Book describes a slightly smaller single-storey random rubble building measuring approximately 75 feet by 18 feet, owned at that time by John Johnston, whose dwelling house and two outbuildings were rated at £8 in total.

Building 1 is first cited in the Valuation Revision Books for 1864–68 as a yarn store, and the rateable valuation rises during this period from £8 to £14 and then to £25 10s 0d. A five- or eight-horsepower engine is also recorded in the valuation for this period, and in conjunction with the surviving chimney this suggests that steam power was already in use at this time. The yarn store was most probably used for storing yarn distributed to handloom weavers working from home, and possibly also for storing the finished cloth.

A hemstitching factory appears alongside the yarn store in the Valuation Revision entry for 1897. A sketch plan in the valuation officer's field book for that year shows all three sections of the block, together with what was presumably an engine house abutting the west side where sections 1B and 2 meet. By 1897 the premises had 50 sewing machines and a 3-horsepower oil engine, suggesting the original steam engine had been superseded. The hemstitching factory is explicitly captioned on the 1903 Ordnance Survey map and is still recorded on the 1918 map.

Although Building 2 exists in the 1897 field sketch, the site's rateable valuation does not exceed the 1868 figure of £25 10s 0d, suggesting either that Building 2 was constructed in the intervening period and overlooked by the Valuation Office, or that it already existed by 1868 but was not explicitly noted. On balance, the available evidence points to a mid-1860s date for Building 2 as well.

John Johnston disappears from the valuations in 1926, having presumably died on or shortly before that date. Joseph Johnston is recorded as owner in 1929. All industrial operations had certainly ceased by 1935, when no industrial hereditaments are noted against the property. Subsequent owners included Elizabeth Johnston (recorded 1948), Mary and Agnes Johnston (1954), George Mitchell (1967), and Hans Johnston (1968).

Setting

The factory block sits in the middle of a farmyard adjoining the owner's house, and is surrounded on all sides by modern corrugated metal agricultural sheds. The site is approached by a long avenue from the main Dromore to Banbridge road.