Major Uprichard, Memorial Orange Hall, 45 Banbridge Road, Tullylish, Co Down, BT32 3YB

Major Uprichard Memorial Orange Hall, 45 Banbridge Road, Tullylish, County Down

This is a detached, symmetrical two-storey rubblestone orange hall, rectangular in plan, originally built as a mill with possible origins dating to 1786 and bearing a datestone of 1844. It was converted and opened as an orange hall in 1928. It faces north-west and sits within its own small plot to the south of the A50. A modest but solid example of a rural orange hall that appears to have largely retained its overall appearance as a mill building, though it is not among the finest examples of the type. Its historic association with Major Uprichard is, however, of particular note.

Exterior

The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with black clay ridge tiles, replacement extruded aluminium rainwater goods, and uPVC barge boards. Two red brick profiled wall-head chimneystacks with terracotta pots rise from the rear elevation. The walls are of random coursed and snecked rubblestone with squared flush granite quoins. Window openings are square-headed, set within flush red brick surrounds with granite sills, and glazed with 1/1 timber sliding sash windows with margin lights and steel grills, except where otherwise described below.

The front (north-west) elevation is five windows wide at first-floor level. At ground-floor level, a central gable-fronted single-storey entrance porch is flanked by two windows on either side. The porch is built of rubblestone with red brick dressings, and has a pitched natural slate roof with a terracotta finial, replacement extruded aluminium rainwater goods, and uPVC barge boards. It has a replacement square-headed hardwood panelled door with an overlight and sidelights, set on granite sills, and surmounted by a polished black stone plaque inscribed "Major Uprichard Memorial Orange Hall Tullylish 1928". The cheeks of the porch are blank.

The north-east gable has a central steel loading bay door at first-floor level, positioned directly above a square-headed vertically-sheeted timber door with sidelights. Above this door is an inscribed date plaque reading "1844". The south-east (rear) elevation has an irregular fenestration pattern, with three windows at first-floor level and four at ground-floor level. The south-west gable is blank.

Setting

The hall sits within its own small plot, enclosed along the A50 frontage by rubblestone walls with concrete coping and a single wrought-iron pedestrian gate on stone piers with red brick dressings and concrete capstones. Hedging encloses the site to the adjacent lane and neighbouring fields. A row of single-storey terraced cottages lies immediately to the south.

History

The building has its origins in the bleach mill and associated works of the Mount Pleasant estate, which according to the Ordnance Survey Memoirs were originally established in 1786, possibly by Thomas Christy of Moyallon, and later belonging to George Darley. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows buildings on this site captioned "Bleach Mill", forming part of the extensive Mount Pleasant bleach green in front of the mansion house, with a range of workers' cottages nearby that survive to the present day. The bleach mill was one of a series of such industrial buildings stretching along the River Bann from Mount Pleasant to Banbridge and beyond, which together made Banbridge and its surroundings the most important inland industrial area in Ireland in its day.

In 1825 the property passed to Isaac Stoney, a linen merchant from Dublin and Frankford, King's County, who remained the owner until at least 1853, when the estate came under the jurisdiction of the Irish Encumbered Estates Court. The Townland Valuation of 1828 to 1840 lists the property as a bleach mill and offices valued at £74 6s, and at that time it was the largest bleach mill in the townland. It was powered by two water wheels each fourteen feet in diameter: the larger, six feet wide, drove two double beetling engines, while the smaller, three feet six inches in width, drove four double wash mills, three pairs of rubbing boards, and four pumps. Other structures on the site at that time included a drying house, coal house, and joiners' shop.

The datestone of 1844 on the building suggests that some rebuilding or remodelling took place by the time of the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858, on which the building is captioned "Flour Mill". It is shown as one of a pair of mills, the nearby Glen Flour Mill being sited at the far edge of a mill pond from which three mill races ran beneath the current building. The Mount Pleasant estate was purchased by George Mullen and Thomas Malcomson in the 1850s and the mill buildings were partially converted for processing flour. Griffith's Valuation of 1856 to 1864 valued the flour mill at £75 and described it as a four-storey building measuring 24 by 10 yards with a two-storey return of 10 by 7½ yards, along with an "old store" of 7 by 8½ yards. The mill contained five pairs of French burrs and two sets of elevators, but no cleaning or dressing machinery, as dressing was carried out at the Glen Flour Mill. A beetling mill driving four beetling engines remained on site, valued at £18, but had been idle for the twelve years prior to 1860, with the exception of that year.

Valuation records note that the flour mill was "not working" in 1868, and its valuation was reduced to £63. Thomas Haughton took over the mill in 1885, but it was recorded as vacant in 1891, when the valuation fell to £35. By 1896 the valuation had been further reduced to £25, with notes recording that the mill was "at rest" and that part of it had been "removed". In 1919 Mark Beck took over the mill and restored it for use as a flax mill, raising the valuation to £30. This revival proved short-lived, however, and by 1925 the mill was described as "in ruins", with its valuation reduced to £2.

The building was converted to use as an orange hall and opened in 1928, being re-designated as an orange hall in valuation records in 1930, when the valuation was raised to £4 10s. The secretary at that time was John Sterritt (1931), followed by Samuel Devlin. In the First General Revaluation of 1936 to 1957, the orange hall, caretaker's apartments, and garden were revalued at £9. The accommodation at that time comprised, at ground-floor level, living quarters for the caretaker including a kitchen, small sitting room, and one bedroom, as well as a small meeting room, an understairs store, and a ladies' WC. The first floor was given over entirely to a large meeting room. A valuer's plan from the same period shows the building with its porch and a small corrugated iron structure to the rear containing earth closets and an engine house providing electricity to the hall.

The hall is named in commemoration of Henry Albert Uprichard, Managing Director of Forster Green and Co., the celebrated Victorian tea and coffee company founded by his grandfather. Henry Albert was also descended from the Uprichards and Christys, two of the most prominent Quaker linen dynasties in the Bann Valley. In the early 20th century he lived at Bannvale House and served as Commander of the 2nd Battalion of the West Down Regiment of the Ulster Volunteer Force. He was a well-known polo player, rode at point-to-point and steeplechase meetings, and hunted with the County Down Staghounds and the Iveagh Harriers. Henry Albert Uprichard was killed in action while serving with the Ulster Division at Thiepval on 1st July 1916.