Millmount, Lurgan Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4LU

Millmount is a symmetrical two-storey, three-bay house built around 1790 and extensively modified around 1860, giving it a largely Victorian appearance today. It stands on a large site to the west side of Lurgan Road, north of Banbridge town centre, in the townland of Edenderry. The house was extended and converted into a nursing home in 1982, at which point large modern two-storey extensions were added to the north-west and north-east. These changes, together with the loss of the original plan form and interior, the introduction of modern housing across the grounds, tarmac hard standings and car parking, have severely degraded the building's character to the point where it was removed from the statutory list in November 2013.

Architectural Description

The house has a rectangular plan with a pre-1833 extension to the south-east and the 1982 extensions to the north-west and north-east, which are of no architectural interest. The hipped roof is covered in natural slate with blue-black angled ridge tiles and two rendered chimneystacks with terracotta pots positioned at the centre of the ridgeline. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods run along the projecting eaves.

The external walls are finished in smooth render with band rustication to the ground floor, raised quoins, and a continuous sill course at first-floor level. Windows are timber sliding sash: six-over-three pane at first-floor level, set in moulded and lugged architraves on corbels with moulded keyblocks; one-over-one pane at ground floor, with low-level sills, flanked by partially fluted pilasters with carved capital heads, and surmounted by a plain entablature and segmental pediment with a carved inset.

The principal elevation faces south-west and is symmetrically arranged around a central doorcase, with three openings to each floor. The painted granite doorcase has a filleted surround with a cornice surmounted by a timber fanlight in a moulded surround. The replacement eight-panel raised-and-fielded timber door is flanked by Ionic columns supporting a projecting entablature, with four-pane sidelights and a carved panel to the base.

The north-west elevation has a window to the left at first-floor level and to the centre at ground floor, and is abutted on the left by the modern 1982 extension. The north-east rear elevation is fully abutted by the other modern 1982 extension. The south-east elevation has a window to the centre at first-floor level and a one-over-one window without architrave to the ground floor right, abutted to the right by the pre-1833 extension. This extension is three windows wide at first-floor level, retaining original architraves but with replacement uPVC glazing; the ground floor has been altered with two windows flanking a central porch. Two windows on the south-east elevation retain their original architraves, again with replacement uPVC glazing. To the left of this elevation is an infilled doorway with a lugged architrave and carved keyblock.

Setting

The house is accessed via a modern entrance to the north. The original entrance from Lurgan Road retains its rendered entrance walls with granite coping stones and square granite gate piers. There are rubble stone boundary walls to the north and south-east, a rubble stone garden wall to the east with a pointed-arched opening, and original decorative cast-iron gates enclosing the rear yard to the south-east. To the south of the site are a number of surviving former outbuildings, including a two-storey red-brick slated barn and a red-brick outbuilding. The site has been extensively developed for sheltered housing since the early 1980s, significantly eroding the original setting. The former out offices to the rear of the house were taken down and replaced in 1991 by 31 flats.

Historical Background

The site has a long history of occupation and milling activity. The McClelland family operated a corn mill here from 1762. A map dated 1796 depicts Millmount Farm, described as a mansion house and several other houses, then part of the estate of John Reilly. William Hayes took a 900-year lease on the property from Reilly and married Margaret Crawford of Ballievey House in 1796; by 1806 he had converted the corn mill into a bleachworks. In 1824, Pigott's Directory of Banbridge recorded William Hayes and Sons operating from Millmount House. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 shows a large dwelling with a number of offices abutting the north side of the house, along with an outbuilding to the south and a two-storey barn to the south-east, of which only the barn and a red-brick outbuilding survive today.

In the 1830s the Townland Valuation recorded Richard Hayes — who had inherited the business after his father's death in 1827 — as owner of the house and its bleach mill on the banks of the River Bann to the south, the whole site being jointly valued at £92 6s. Although the house was built around 1790, it is largely Victorian in appearance and is believed to have been modified in the mid-19th century, with alteration work likely completed before Griffith's Valuation recorded it in 1863. There was little discernible change to the site between the first and second edition Ordnance Survey maps, though by 1860 a gate lodge had been constructed at the entrance on Lurgan Road. This lodge no longer stands, having been demolished sometime after 1970 when it still appeared on the Ordnance Survey map; it is believed to have been designed by Thomas Turner, who was known to have carried out work for the Hayes family.

Richard Hayes continued to reside at Millmount until his death in 1864, at which point the house, gate lodge and bleachworks were valued together at £240. Hayes owned his property outright and let at least twelve small houses on his land, likely occupied by his workforce. After his death, his widow Henrietta Hayes took possession and let the bleachworks successively to the Malcomson family and then to a Mr James McWilliams. Millmount House was first recorded separately from the bleachworks in the Annual Revisions of 1864, when it was valued at £50.

Around 1877, Robert Joy — a Justice of the Peace who also traded on Belfast's Stock Exchange — married Richard and Henrietta Hayes's daughter Elizabeth and came into possession of Millmount House. The 1901 Census records Joy (aged 62, Church of Ireland, born in England) living at Millmount with his family. The Census Building Return described the house as a first-class dwelling of sixteen rooms with a large number of out offices, including a stable, two cow houses, a dairy, a boiling house, a store and a laundry, located in the outbuildings abutting the rear of the house and in smaller outbuildings to the south. The third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1903 shows little change to the house since 1860, though the bleachworks to the south had been greatly expanded; Hayes's former factory continued to operate under the name Hayes and Co throughout this period.

By 1902 the house had passed to the Cowdy family. Anthony Cowdy, who had previously operated a business in Greenhall, Loughall, had let the bleachworks from the Hayes family from 1892 and moved part of his business to the Lurgan Road site. The family moved into Millmount House in 1902, and upon Anthony Cowdy's death in 1908 his widow Sarah took over; the company Anthony Cowdy and Sons Ltd was administered by his sons. Francis Charles Cowdy lived at Millmount until his death in 1953, and Rankin records that the Cowdy family continued to reside there until the mid-1960s when the linen and bleaching industry declined and the factories at both Greenhall and Millmount were closed. However, the first survey of the building, conducted in 1969, recorded that a member of the Cowdy family was still in possession of the house at that time. The value of the house remained at £50 at the close of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

Millmount House was listed in 1977. It was extended and converted into a nursing home in 1982, with modern two-storey extensions added to the north-west and north-east. The former out offices to the rear were subsequently taken down and replaced in 1991 by 31 flats. The cumulative effect of these changes — the loss of the original interior and plan form, the modern extensions, and the transformation of the grounds — led to the building being removed from the statutory list in November 2013, having been assessed as no longer of special architectural or historical interest.