Sergeant's House, RUC Barracks, Church Square, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4AT

Sergeant's House, RUC Barracks, Church Square, Banbridge

A two-storey two-bay sergeant's house built in the 1930s (construction date of 1927 is also recorded), standing adjacent to the Police Barracks dating from around 1860. Much of the historic fabric and detailing survives.

The building has a hipped natural slate roof with a central red-brick chimneystack. Timber fascia and soffit are fitted with cast-iron rainwater goods. The walling is roughcast rendered with a smooth rendered platband between floors. Windows are predominantly multi-paned timber casement windows with painted smooth rendered surrounds and projecting painted cills.

The principal elevation faces northeast and contains a central doorway with a timber door accessed up one step under a moulded concrete canopy, flanked by small windows on either side. A gate pillar to the yard stands at the left. The first floor has a single window at the left.

The southeast elevation has a window to the centre on both ground and first floors, with another window at the left on the ground floor. The southwest elevation contains a single-storey flat-roof extension running the full width, with a door at the right and a single casement window at the left on the ground floor; the first floor has a double casement window at the right. The northwest elevation is symmetrical, with two windows on the ground floor comprising four timber casements each, and two windows on the first floor with three timber casements each.

The house is situated to the north of the Barracks at a lower level than the road, within the yard of the Police Barracks. It is accessed via an entrance north of the Masonic Hall and through security gates. The River Bann flows on the west side of the site. A yard lies to the east beyond double plain wrought-iron gates, with a single-storey painted wetdash outbuilding to the south.

The sergeant's house was built in the 1930s to provide accommodation for the sergeant and his family. The adjoining Police Barracks was constructed around 1860 (it does not appear on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1860 but is recorded in Griffith's Valuation of 1863). The barracks was originally built to house a Police Barracks for Banbridge and also to operate a rent office for the Downshire estate. The 1901 Census recorded seven policemen resident in the barracks: a Head Constable, a Sergeant, and five Constables, all single, as married men were not generally expected to live at the barracks. Most had rural farming backgrounds and more than half were Catholic, having been born in various locations including King's County, Kerry, Monaghan, Donegal and Tyrone. By 1911, the force had expanded by one additional man but otherwise remained of similar composition. The Census building return described the Royal Irish Constabulary Barracks as a first-class building with a stable and coach house as its sole outoffices. In 1909, the estate office was deleted from the valuation lists and the RIC took over the entire building, which was then valued at £35. The site remained unchanged between 1909 and 1923, when Partition resulted in the establishment of Northern Ireland. The Royal Ulster Constabulary continued to occupy the building. In 1925 the barracks was purchased by the Ministry of Home Affairs for £1,200, and by 1927 its value had increased to £59 due to extensions to the rear. These housed new quarters for the Head Constable, comprising a three-bedroom house with kitchen, sitting room, pantry, bath and water closet. The barracks is shown T-shaped on the third edition Ordnance Survey map, with the northeast side filled in by the 1960s maps, suggesting that the new accommodation was built on to the existing barracks block rather than as a separate house. The exact date of construction of the separate sergeant's house is unclear from records, but its architectural style indicates a date in the 1930s is most likely. Some elements, such as the wetdash finish and smooth feature banding, may result from work undertaken in the 1950s.

Although this is an unusual example of a house built as separate accommodation for police officers on site, it is of a late date and not of special architectural interest. Other examples of police service buildings exist that are of greater significance.