Watch Tower, Tullylish, Gilford, Co.Down

A nineteenth century cylindrical rubble stone watch house associated with the former Springvale and Mill Park Bleach Works at Lawrencetown, near Banbridge. The building dates from the 1840s to 1850s, likely following the Uprichard family's acquisition of the Springvale mill in the 1830s, and is first shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1860.

The watch house is constructed of random rubble stone with a corbelled conical roof over projecting brick eaves, employing an archaic method of roof construction of which few nineteenth century examples remain. A full-height narrow entrance faces northeast, finished with brick jambs. Circular apertures, formed in brick, are located on the north and west elevations. The building has no windows. It stands in a large sloping field on the west side of Springvale Road, bounded by hedgerow and native trees, positioned approximately 50 metres from the road and accessed via a field gate to the east.

Six watch houses were originally built on or near the bleach greens at Springvale and Mill Park, shown on the 1860 Ordnance Survey map. These structures were built using the same construction techniques as the round gate pillars commonly seen at Irish farmhouses. Three of the original six were sited to the south of the Springvale bleach mills, of which this is the only one remaining in its original location with a circular plan. One of the three circular watch houses became derelict, while another was removed in 1967 and re-erected at the Ulster Folk Museum at Cultra.

The watch houses provided accommodation for bleach green watchmen responsible for guarding newly-woven linen webs spread on the green to bleach after treatment in the mill. The linen was vulnerable to straying animals and theft, the latter being a relatively common occurrence harshly punished, with penalties including the death sentence until this was repealed in 1811.

The building has group value with the only other surviving watch house on this site, a rectangular structure (HB17/03/016B), and represents a significant link to the linen industry that was central to the historical development of the area.