Warringsford Orange Hall, Tullinsky Road, Dromore, Banbridge, Co Down, BT25 2PD

Warringsford Orange Hall is a detached, symmetrical single-storey Orange Hall dated 1907, located on the north side of Tullinisky Road in the hamlet of Waringsford, near Dromore in County Down. It is an example of a modest early twentieth-century rural Orange Hall that has retained much of its simple detailing and character, though its interest has been compromised by extensive interior alterations.

The building is rectangular on plan with a projecting gabled entrance porch and a modern concrete block lean-to abutment to the rear. The pitched roof is clad in natural slate with terracotta ridge tiles and plain bargeboards to the gables. Yellow-brick chimneystacks rise from the gables, with a finial to the porch. Plastic rainwater goods sit on projecting eaves with replacement fascias and soffits.

The walling is painted roughcast render on a painted brick plinth with angle buttresses. A rubble stone plinth course is present to the rear. A dentilled string course runs to the gables at eaves level. Windows are replacement timber casements with projecting painted sills, topped by camber-headed flush brick voussoirs with keyblocks.

The principal elevation faces south and is symmetrically arranged with two windows to either side of the projecting gabled porch. The porch itself has angle buttresses and a square-headed double-leaf six-panelled timber door in a stop-end chamfered recess, accessed via a concrete step. A corbelled timber drip mould tops the door, and an inscribed marble plaque on the gable reads "WARINGSFORD / ORANGE HALL / SITE GRANTED FREE BY / W.C.HERON ESQ. J.P.D.L. / OPENED 5TH NOVR 1907 / BY MRS R.M.LIDDELL". Camber-headed leaded-and-stained glass windows are positioned to left and right of the porch cheeks. The west gable is blank. The north (rear) elevation contains three windows; the concrete block lean-to abutment to the left of centre is of no interest. The east elevation is blank.

The building sits on its own small plot adjacent to a modern housing development to the west. The frontage and sides are gravelled, enclosed by a mature hedgerow and bounded to the road to the south by a roughcast rendered wall on a contrasting plinth with saddleback coping.

The Hall first appears on the fourth edition Ordnance Survey map (1903-20) and entered valuation records in 1909, when the Trustees of the Orange Society leased it from William C. Heron. The valuer's notes recorded dimensions of 44 feet by 24 feet by 16 feet, with the porch measuring 8 feet by 7 feet by 12 feet.

Waringsford village was established when Henry Waring (died 1716), fifth son of William Waring of Waringstown, built a mansion house to the north-east of the present village. The village's growth was subsequently driven by Ervine's Grain Mill, which operated successfully until at least the 1970s. The Orange Hall was opened in 1907 on a site granted free by William Cowan Heron of Altafort in Skeagh, a prominent local benefactor, Deputy Lieutenant of the County and Justice of the Peace, who is also remembered for founding the Cowan Heron Hospital in Dromore. Over the years, the hall has provided a home for various Orange bands and lodges and has hosted fundraising concerts and social events. More recently it served as a base for the Waringsford and Tullinisky Community Development Association.

Shortly after its opening, the hall was immortalised in a song written by Private W. H. Wallace, who was later killed in France in 1915. The song reads: "Although it is a village small in the West of County Down, In the Parish of Garvaghy, three miles from Dromore Town – Our Orange standard's planted there, the cause we will maintain, Within our lovely Orange Hall in Waringsford Demesne".

The hall was re-opened in September 2007 following a thorough renovation programme. The refurbishment, which cost tens of thousands of pounds funded through grant-aid and fundraising, included the addition of a new toilet block to the rear, reconstruction of the roof, rewiring, installation of a new kitchen, new ceiling and new doors. Officers and members of the lodge contributed their time and efforts, with professional work carried out by Alistair Farrell (electrician), James Kerr (plumber), C & P Plastering and AB Kitchens.