97 Lurgan Road, Seapatrick, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4NE

A two-bay two-storey-with-attic rendered mid-terrace house built around 1865, located on the east side of Lurgan Road in Seapatrick.

The house is square on plan with a pitched natural slate roof fitted with blue and black angled ridge tiles. The rendered chimneystack has moulded caps and terracotta pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are mounted on cavetto moulded eaves. The walling is painted smooth render on a narrow plinth.

The principal elevation faces west and is two openings wide to each floor. Windows are segmental-arched 2/2 timber sash lights set in moulded architraves with projecting sills; the rear has replacement uPVC windows. At ground floor left is a four-panelled timber door with square-headed overlight, flanked by panelled pilasters and surmounted by a corniced pediment with console brackets. The north elevation is abutted by the adjoining building, as is the south elevation. The rear elevation contains a replacement first-floor window to the left and a round-arched replacement stairwell window to the right; the ground floor rear is concealed.

The house is set street-fronting with a paved yard to the rear enclosed by a high rendered wall with a timber-sheeted entrance gate.

The terrace was constructed as housing for supervisory staff and a shop by the local spinning firm Hayes & Co Ltd. The buildings first appear on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of around 1900 as a terraced row opposite the Hayes mill complex, captioned 'Seapatrick Mills'. They do not appear in Griffith's Valuation but first feature in the valuation fieldbook dating from 1864 to 1874. While no precise date is given in the fieldbook, the date of around 1865 is proposed based on primary records and the appearance of the buildings. Numbers 91 to 95 Lurgan Road are listed first in the fieldbook, with 97 and 99 added at a slightly later date. The house was valued at £8.10s, being slightly larger than other houses in the terrace, and was leased from Frederick William Hayes.

Early occupants included Alexander Montgomery, Thomas C Thompson (1887), John Smith (1902) and James McClure (1913). In 1901, John Smith, aged 52, a foreman and flax buyer from Belfast, lived here with his wife, three young daughters and a 19-year-old domestic servant. By 1911, James McClure, a flax manager at the spinning mill, occupied the house with his wife and 4-year-old son. Subsequent occupiers were Henry Chaney (1917) and John Smith, who returned in 1920. At the time of the First General Revaluation (1933/4), Joseph McAnuff was the occupier and the house was leased from T & A Wallace, owners of the neighbouring shop. The accommodation comprised a lobby, reception, two bedrooms, a kitchen, scullery and a water closet in the yard, and was revalued at £7.10s. The occupier managed the shop next door and the house was let to him rent-free.

The house continues in use as a dwelling. The interior appears to have been refurbished with some loss of historic detail. The terrace remains essentially unchanged from around 1900, except for alterations to the rear and, in some cases, removal or alteration of the ornamental pediment above the front door.