'The Brae', 104 Melmount Road, Sion Mills, Co Tyrone, BT82 9PY

'The Brae', 104 Melmount Road, Sion Mills

'The Brae' is an early 20th-century two-storey, multi-bay Arts and Crafts house built around 1904–05 on the east side of Melmount Road, Sion Mills. It was designed by William Williamson, a Scottish architect from the Kirkcaldy linen family who were close friends of the Herdman family. This appears to have been his only commission outside Scotland. The house was built for Captain Ambrose St Quintin Ricardo, son-in-law of Emerson T. Herdman, proprietor of Sion Mills, and it first appears on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1905 captioned 'The Brae'.

Architectural Character and Exterior

The house is generally L-shaped on plan with projections, a two-storey entrance block set at the re-entrant angle, and a single-storey extension to the north dating from around 1950. The rooflines are complex: pitched and bellcast with hipped sections, finished throughout in rosemary tiles with angled rosemary ridge tiles, leaded hip caps and deep timber bargeboards. Decorative rectangular red brick chimneystacks with clay pots rise prominently above the roofline. Rainwater goods are half-round cast-iron gutters supported on overhanging timber eaves with timber-sheeted soffits and cast-iron brackets.

Walling is exposed red brick at ground floor and roughcast render at first floor, with exposed timber framework to the entrance block on the west elevation. Windows are generally square-headed timber casements, camber-headed at ground floor, with moulded brick cills at ground floor and precast moulded masonry cills at first floor. A significant number of the original timber casements have been replaced with uPVC.

Principal (West) Elevation

The principal elevation faces west and is asymmetrical in composition. It comprises a two-storey projecting gabled bay to the right, with a two-storey entrance block set at the re-entrant angle. The projecting bay contains a window at each floor on its west gable face. Its left cheek contains a single window at each floor; the ground floor window is square-headed, fixed, and contains stained glass. The entrance tower's west elevation has, to the right, a round-arched opening containing a square-headed timber painted door with original wrought-iron strap hinges and a fanlight over, and a porthole window to the left, with two windows at first floor. The left cheek (north face) of the entrance tower is blank. A semi-circular timber canopy supported on a cast-iron bracket at the re-entrant angle covers the entrance. To the left of the entrance block, two windows are present at each floor.

North and Rear Elevations

The north elevation has been extended by a single-storey block connecting the main house with an adjacent former stable block, now used as living accommodation. The north gable is abutted by a one-and-a-half-storey block with a hipped roof, detailed to match the main house, though this block has been modified to incorporate two dormer windows on its north face. A further single-storey block, now used as a garage and detailed similarly to the main house, also extends from the north elevation.

The rear (east) elevation has a pitched gable to the left, a two-storey projecting bay with a hipped roof at the centre, and an exposed section to the right containing one window at ground floor and two at first floor. The central projecting bay contains a window at each floor on its east face; its left cheek has an original timber glazed entrance door and a window at first floor; the right cheek is blank. The left gable contains a window at each floor, with a porthole window at ground floor. A veranda, with some glass remaining, abuts the ground floor of the left gable and terminates at the re-entrant angle.

South Elevation

The south elevation is abutted to the left by a two-storey canted bay with a flat roof, with a window at each face at each floor. To the right, a former glazed veranda supported on a brick plinth wall abuts the ground floor; remaining lead flashing indicates the roof structure would originally have been glazed, though no glass remains. The exposed section of the south elevation contains a timber glazed door at ground floor, two windows to the left (the leftmost diminished in size), and a single-storey bowed bay to the right containing original timber casement windows with curved glass and original ironmongery. At first floor there are two windows, the rightmost diminished.

Interior

The house retains Arts and Crafts joinery internally. By the mid-1930s, the accommodation comprised a kitchen, scullery, two rooms, three bedrooms, two dining rooms, two servants' rooms and a bathroom. At that time a valuers' note recorded it as a 'large detached house sitting in own grounds, in very good order throughout, with modern conveniences and electric light.'

Setting and Outbuildings

The house sits within an extensive wooded demesne, accessed from the west by a winding drive lined with mature trees. The driveway is entered through red brick entrance piers with ridge tile coping, and hedging forms the remainder of the west boundary. There is a gravel forecourt to the front of the house with extensive gardens to the south and west. A modern glazed conservatory abuts the west elevation.

Historical Significance and Group Value

Captain Ambrose St Quintin Ricardo was a great-grandson of the political economist David Ricardo, whose family home was Gatcombe Park near Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire — now the home of Princess Anne. Having served as Adjutant of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers during the Boer War, earning the DSO and three bars for gallantry, and having seen active service on the North West Frontier of India, Ricardo retired from the Army after the Boer War and became a Director of Herdmans Ltd following the death of John Herdman of Carricklee in 1903. He took on responsibility for the mill personnel, the village and the wider community at Sion Mills. He and his wife Ella, née Herdman, had no children. Ricardo was tragically drowned in the Sion Mills reservoir in 1921. He is commemorated in the Ricardo Monument in the Church of the Good Shepherd, Sion Mills, to the construction of which he was also a key contributor.

By 1905, valuation records show the house was occupied by Captain Ricardo, leased from E. Herdman, with a valuation of £36. Accompanying valuers' notes provide a plan and dimensions and describe a house of brick and tile construction with a glass verandah. After 1934, the house was occupied by A. W. West and leased from E. A. Ricardo, by which time the valuation had risen to £48 and additional outbuildings — including a motor house, greenhouse and toolshed — had been added.

The house has historic group value with the Herdmans' Mill Complex and with other buildings along Melmount Road built to serve the Herdmans' Mill community, including Sion House, Sion Mills Recreation Club, Sion Mills Elementary School, and 122–124 Melmount Road. Despite modern additions, 'The Brae' remains an important building of significant historic and architectural interest within the town of Sion Mills, retaining much of its original fabric, plan form and setting.