Crozier House, 15 Church Square, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4AP

Crozier House, also known historically as Avonmore House, is a mid-terrace Georgian town house of three storeys — two principal floors with a semi-basement and attic — built in 1791 to a rectangular plan. It stands on Church Square in the north part of Banbridge town centre, directly opposite the Crozier Monument. The listing extends to the house itself, its steps, and its railings.

The house was built for George Crozier, a solicitor and agent to the Earl of Moira. It is most celebrated as the birthplace and childhood home of Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier (1796–c.1848), the polar explorer, after whom it is now commonly named.

Architectural Description

The roof is a flat-topped natural slate construction with clay ridge tiles. The eaves are formed as a parapet concealing the rainwater goods at the front, while cast-iron ogee-moulded rainwater goods are visible to the rear. The chimney is smoothly rendered with a moulded cornice.

The external walls are stucco rendered throughout. The ground floor features rusticated channelling; the first floor is treated with ruled-and-lined rendering. Raised long-and-short quoins mark the corners, and a moulded stringcourse and plat band run horizontally across the elevation.

The principal elevation faces northeast and is symmetrically composed. At ground floor level, a centrally positioned sweeping perron (external stair) rises to the entrance over a basement trench, flanked on each side by a single window. Above, three first-floor windows and three attic windows are positioned directly overhead. Three basement windows sit below. The ground-floor windows are tripartite 9-over-9 sliding timber sash windows with 3-over-3 side lights; they have no horns and are set within moulded surrounds with panelled pilaster frames rising to a broken cornice course. Above each window sits a segmental pediment decorated with patera and festoons, and a dentilled moulded archivolt with an acanthus leaf. The jamb mouldings drop below the sill level to meet the plat band at basement level. The first-floor windows are 6-over-6 sliding sash windows, also without horns, with moulded surrounds and painted masonry sills. The attic windows are 3-over-3 sliding sashes, without horns or surrounds, set on painted masonry sills.

The entrance door is a raised-and-fielded eight-panel door with cast-iron ironmongery, flanked by a three-paned side light with blank aprons. The door frame consists of plain pilasters rising to an entablature decorated with patera and festoons, surmounted by a segmental pediment bearing a moulded plaque depicting figures beneath a tree with an urn. The archivolt is dentilled and moulded with an acanthus leaf, and the jambs are moulded.

A blue plaque on the ground floor to the right of the entrance reads: "CAPTAIN FRANCIS RAWDON MOIRA CROZIER DISCOVERER OF THE NORTHWEST PASSAGE 1796–1848 LIVED HERE."

The left gable is asymmetrically arranged with an attic window to the right; the ground and first floors are abutted by the adjoining building. The right gable is also asymmetrically arranged, smoothly rendered, with two narrow first-floor windows to the right, two attic windows, and a ground floor abutted by 23 Church Square. The rear elevation is symmetrically arranged with five openings to each floor. It is roughcast rendered with no mouldings. The basement, central, and right bays are fully fenestrated; the left-bay openings are generally blind, with the exception of the ground floor and attic left openings. A centrally positioned masonry perron at the rear rises to a replacement rear door with a margin-paned transom light.

Setting

The house forms part of a terrace on the north side of Banbridge, looking onto Church Square. Wrought-iron railings with cast-iron newels and a moulded coping address the front entrance. To the rear, the yard is enclosed to the north and east by a night-club complex of no historic interest.

Historical Background

Avonmore House was constructed in 1791 for George Crozier, solicitor and agent to the Earl of Moira. The Townland Valuation of around 1830 recorded the property at a value of £28, with Crozier still in occupation. By 1843, Ulster Town Directories recorded that the house had passed to his son Thomas Crozier, also a solicitor, who practised in both Dublin and locally. Thomas Crozier vacated the property by 1852, when the Ulster Street Directory recorded him as residing in Dromore Street, though he continued to own the house. Around 1863, Griffith's Valuation noted that Thomas Crozier had let the house — by then valued at £35 — to a Mr Robert Fennell, who operated Robert Fennell & Co., a bleaching manufactory in the Banbridge area. Fennell resided at Avonmore House until his death in 1866, after which his widow Selina Fennell remained in occupation until 1871.

The next recorded occupant was Dr John Hawthorne, first noted in the Annual Revisions in 1875, who lived at Avonmore House until his death in November 1900. Occupancy then passed to Dr James Waddell. The 1901 Census records Waddell as 25 years old, Presbyterian, born in Japan, and a qualified Doctor of the Royal University of Ireland (M.B., 1899). He was the son of a Presbyterian missionary to Tokyo. The Census Building Return described Avonmore House as a first-class dwelling of ten rooms, with a number of outbuildings including a stable, cow house, and store. Shortly after his appointment to Banbridge Infirmary, Waddell volunteered as a civil surgeon during the Second Boer War (1899–1902), and died at Middleburg, South Africa, in November 1905. He received a medal at the front; his obituary in the British Medical Journal noted that he "came of a fighting and enterprising stock which during the last two centuries has distinguished itself on many occasions in the service of the country," a lineage that also included the Irish-American author Captain Mayne Reid (1818–1889). Waddell was also the brother of Helen Waddell, the celebrated medieval scholar and translator, who later resided at Kilmacrew House towards the end of her life.

After Waddell's death in 1905, several occupants briefly resided at the address, including a Dr Redford and a Mr E. S. Mills, who was recorded in the Ulster Street Directory as Organist and Choir Master of Seapatrick Parish Church. By 1910 the house stood vacant. The Annual Revisions record that between 1908 and 1913 alterations were carried out to the outbuildings, reducing the property's rateable value to £25 by 1913. In the same year, the house was reoccupied by a Mr William Stevenson, employed as a cashier, who resided there until his death in 1937.

In 1969, the architectural historian C. E. B. Brett described Crozier House as "a most attractive house, quite apart from its historical associations with the Crozier family," and noted that in 1968 the house had been purchased by a Mr Lloyd Cowdy, who undertook restoration of the exterior in conjunction with the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society. The house was listed in 1976 and is currently used as commercial premises.

Captain Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier

George Crozier's most famous son, Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier (1796–c.1848), was born at Avonmore House and joined the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars at the age of fourteen. In 1821, as a lieutenant, he sailed with Captain William Edward Parry on an attempt to discover the North-West Passage, the first of three Arctic expeditions he undertook with Parry, the subsequent voyages taking place in 1824 and 1827. Promoted to Commander in 1837, Crozier commanded HMS Terrier during Captain James Clark Ross's expedition to the Antarctic. He attained the rank of Captain in 1841 and was appointed second-in-command for Captain John Franklin's ill-fated expedition to chart the last unnavigated section of the North-West Passage, which departed in 1845. The expedition came to grief when both ships became trapped in pack ice between September 1846 and April 1848. Captain Franklin perished during this period, and Crozier took command. He made the decision to abandon the ships and attempt to escape southwards by sled, but both he and his men succumbed to illness and the harsh conditions. The ships were not discovered until the 1850s, when the fate of the crew also became known. The west point of King William Island, where the crew wintered whilst trapped between 1846 and 1848, was renamed Cape Crozier in his honour. A blue plaque placed on the house prior to 1969 commemorates him, and the Crozier Monument stands directly opposite.