Zion House, 120 Melmount Road, Sion Mills, Co.Tyrone

Zion House is a large, visually complex, mainly two-and-a-half-storey gentleman's residence in the Elizabethan style, situated within extensive grounds to the east of Melmount Road in the village of Sion Mills, County Tyrone. It took its present form in 1883–84 when a smaller Italianate house of 1842 was extended and radically remodelled by the London architect William Frederick Unsworth FRIBA, working for Emmerson Tennent Herdman. The building is of considerable architectural and social importance as the centrepiece of the village of Sion Mills, and retains strong group value alongside its matching gatehouse and stable block. Comprehensive documentation of the original design survives, making restoration a realistic prospect.

ORIGINS AND HISTORY

The original house was built in 1842 by Belfast businessman James Herdman, close to the old Seein corn mill which he and his partners had converted for flax spinning in 1835. That earlier building was a relatively simple two-storey, hipped-roof, stuccoed structure in a late Regency or Italianate manner — described by architectural historian Alistair Rowan as being "in the manner of Lanyon" — with a portico, dentilled eaves cornice, and simple mouldings. In the 1880s and 1890s, Emmerson Tennent Herdman engaged his brother-in-law Unsworth to remodel the house and extend the mill village. Unsworth transformed Sion House in 1883–84 into the present mock timber-framed manor house in the fashionable late Tudor or Elizabethan style, complete with gabled bays, high-pitched tiled roof, tall red brick chimneystacks, and a veranda and gallery along the rear garden elevation. The house remained in the Herdman family until 1967, when it was sold to its present owner.

A contemporary account published in The Irish Builder on 1 December 1884 describes the completed building in enthusiastic terms. The principal entrance on the north side led through a veranda supported on open curved brackets — containing an old carved oak settle with natural foliage in bas-relief — into a spacious panelled hall with a quaint old-fashioned staircase, open fireplace, and a wood chimneypiece with overmantel rising to the height of the panelling. The screens enclosing the entrance porch, and the garden entrance screen on the south-east side, were filled with leaded lights glazed with painted glass and emblazoned with national and industrial emblems, monograms, and coats of arms. The billiard room, entered from the east side of the hall and in a semi-detached position, had its principal roof timbers exposed, forming the pitched ceiling into richly moulded panels, and walls wainscoted to a height of six feet in richly moulded and panelled work. Its open fireplace was lined with artistic glazed earthenware tiles of a deep green colour with a waved surface, deeply recessed under a quaint panelled many-centred arch with luxurious settles on each side, a raised hearth in terra-metallic tiles in an intricate pattern, and fine wrought-iron firedogs, together with a small window looking out over the pleasure grounds. The reception rooms on the south side included a spacious drawing room with a panelled arch framing a mullioned bay window enriched with patterned lead glazing, from which a side doorway led to a slightly elevated veranda enclosed with a balustrade, extending the full length of the south façade and leading to the conservatory, with steps down to the tennis lawns. The dining room opened off this veranda through a handsome mullioned screen with folding doors and patterned lead glazing; its walls were panelled and moulded in English-figured oak enriched with carvings, with a buffet formed in a coved recess as part of the room's panelling scheme, and an open fireplace lined with two-colour tiles with a chimneypiece and overmantel of carved oak incorporating bevelled mirrors and carved armorial panels. The ceilings of both the drawing room and dining room were of elaborate fibrous plaster with moulded ribs in strong relief and massive enriched cornices, and the floors throughout the principal rooms and halls were laid in solid oak parquetry. The library and morning room were on the north side; the kitchens and culinary departments on the west side at principal floor level, fitted with every modern appliance including a notable wrought-iron hood over the range, manufactured at Herdman and Co.'s own engineering works. The upper floors contained sixteen spacious bedrooms with dressing rooms, several obtained by pitching up the main roof and lighting through the decorative dormers. A spacious basement extended under the entire building, housing the usual offices and two of Pitt's patent warming and ventilating apparatus, which conveyed warmed fresh air to the various apartments and corridors. Several balconies afforded views of the grounds, and the roof leads were also accessible, commanding views of the valleys of the Foyle and Mourne, the Baronscourt demesne plantations, and the mountains of Barnesmore, Betsy Bell, and Mary Gray. The gardens were laid out in terraces with low red brick retaining walls in character with the house. The entire building, gatehouse, bridge, grounds, fittings, and principal furniture were executed to Unsworth's designs and under his superintendence by the builder J. Ballantine of Londonderry.

GENERAL FORM AND PLAN

The building is broadly rectangular in plan, with a roughly square and relatively large projection at the north-east corner. The main body of the house is two-and-a-half storeys high with a basement level, fully exposed on the south and east sides. To the west there is a large two-storey gabled projection linked to a much smaller single-storey hipped-roof section. The north-east corner projection is made up of a complex and somewhat eclectic collection of outbuildings — some relatively recent — with a mixture of hipped, curved, and gabled roofs. The building is largely finished in mock timber framing using real timber, with the exposed basement level in roughcast and brick, and significant portions of the front west and rear elevations also in brick. Gables of varying sizes predominate on all sides. The largely pan-tiled, overhanging main roof is punctuated with gabled and hipped roof dormers. Window openings are largely original, with many retaining leaded lights within mullioned and transomed timber frames, though some have relatively modern plain-glazed frames, one ground floor opening has been slightly enlarged, and another nearby has been blocked up. There are also a few oriel windows.

ALTERATIONS SINCE 1967

The property has undergone significant alteration since 1967. A section of the roof at the rear has been lowered by a full storey. A portion of the rear façade is now missing, leaving some rooms open to the elements. The six tall, prominent red brick chimneystacks — original to Unsworth's design and in typical Tudor manner, with two to the north side of the roof, two to the rear, one larger stack at the ridge between the north and south stacks, one near the west end of the ridge, and another on the north-east corner projection — have all been removed, with that on the left-hand side of the front replaced by a much lower, plainer stack. The long veranda that originally ran the full length of the south façade, and the conservatory, have been completely removed. Part of the front façade has been patched in concrete block and brick. The bay next to the entrance has been given a pitched roof and a large modern window; originally this bay had mullioned and transomed windows and a flat roof serving as a small roof terrace or balcony, accessible from a first-floor doorway (which itself remains in place). A section of the kitchen projection to the front has been much altered. A curved glazed stairwell bay containing a spiral staircase, apparently added around the 1990s, has been inserted at the north-east corner projection, likely replacing an earlier bay that would have had a flat roof. A post-1967 tall narrow rendered chimneystack with a pyramidal vented top has been added at the centre of the ridge of the north-east corner projection. A Velux window has been inserted in the north elevation of the main roof. Some rainwater goods have been replaced in PVC.

NORTH (FRONT) ELEVATION

The front elevation faces north and is asymmetrical. Much of it is two-and-a-half storeys high, with a significant portion to the far left roughly one-and-a-half storeys, and a portion to the far right single storey. To the left of the main tallest portion there is a large full-height gabled bay. At ground floor level of this bay, and extending to the one-and-a-half storey section further left, there is a long single-storey projection with a mono-pitched (lean-to style) pan-tiled roof. The right-hand third of this projection is open, forming a porch over the main entrance, with the roof supported on two large curved timber brackets. The main entrance consists of a relatively modest timber Tudor-arch door with a linen-fold type treatment, set within a painted stone bevelled and moulded reveal; the moulding rises above the door to form shallow spandrel panels, with a stone step below. Immediately to the right of the doorway, still within the porch, is a relatively large three-light window with a pointed arch head to each light and small glazed spandrels; below the window is a short course of brickwork and then a tall bevelled base, mainly in painted roughcast with a bevelled stone head and in-and-out stone quoins, a course that carries across much of the rest of the front elevation. Above the window and to the short space immediately to the right of the doorway, the façade is finished in mock timber framing with a moulded dentilled course just above door and window height. The west-facing wall of the porch has no openings. To the right-hand end of the porch, beyond the doorway, there extends a short decorative balustrade that turns at right angles to the west, bordering the drop into the basement light well; this balustrade has squat square piers with panelling and stone caps, and curved octagonal balusters with a stone rail, and does not appear to be original. At basement level beneath the balustrade there is a west-facing window with a modern frame.

The rest of the single-storey projection to the left of the porch is finished similarly, with three narrow high-level windows set between the timbers, all with small leaded lights. To the left of these lights, where the projection crosses on to the one-and-a-half storey portion, a small section rises to form a hipped-roof bay or dormer, containing a large six-light mullioned and transomed window with small leaded panes to each light. The remainder of the single-storey projection and the one-and-a-half storey section behind the bay are finished in mock timber framing.

The large full-height gabled bay above the porch has two sets of three tall narrow windows at first-floor level, each set between timbers with small leaded lights. The top floor consists of the large gable itself, which is jettied and supported on decorative brackets with pointed pendants; within the gable is a large central window with a modern frame. Both the gable and the first floor are finished in mock timber framing, with shaped bargeboards to the gable.

To the immediate right of the full-height gabled bay, at ground floor level, there is a lean-to projection with a pan-tiled roof and timber-framed façade. To its front face there is a large window with a modern frame; to the short west face a smaller window with a modern frame; and at basement level two squat windows with modern frames. This projection, which now houses part of the kitchen, has been considerably altered; originally it had mullioned and transomed windows and a flat roof serving as a small balcony or roof terrace accessed from a first-floor doorway, which survives in place.

To the right of this projection a large section of the façade has been patched in concrete block and brick. To the left of this patch the façade is in roughcast, in poor condition. Within the concrete block section there is a large window with a recent mullioned and transomed frame, replacing what was originally a small window with an even smaller window to its right; the latter has been completely blocked up. Further right within the rendered portion is another window whose frame largely survives but whose opening is mostly blocked. At basement level, directly below the concrete block patch, there is a large window with a modern frame.

At first-floor level above the kitchen projection there is a relatively small two-light transomed window with small leaded panes. To its right is a partly glazed door with a sidelight and a large three-light fanlight, all with small leaded panes, originally leading to the roof terrace balcony described above. Further right are two more transomed windows of the same type, then two larger mullioned and transomed windows with leaded lights. At the far right of the first floor is a hipped-roof oriel window supported on two curved timber brackets, with mullioned and transomed windows with leaded lights, partly set within a large gable. In the uppermost floor, directly above the oriel and within the apex of the gable, is a pair of relatively small two-light windows with leaded panes. The whole of this first floor and gable area are finished in mock half-timbering.

At the far right end of the north elevation there is a relatively small single-storey section in red brick with a tiled hipped roof in original flat red clay tiles. To its north face are five small narrow windows, most with leaded lights, with a larger modern-framed window inserted between the first and second from the left, abutting directly against the second window.

The north elevation of the main roof contains three dormers, all positioned between the large gabled bay and the gable at the far right. The left-hand dormer is the largest, with a timber-framed gable and a leaded three-light window. The two dormers to the right are of similar size with hipped roofs; the far right one retains its original leaded casement window, while the other has a plain casement frame. To the far left, to the left of the largest dormer, there is a Velux window.

EAST ELEVATION

The east elevation is shorter than the north elevation but more complex in appearance. It is fully exposed at basement level and is therefore effectively three storeys in height. Much of the right-hand half of the elevation is taken up with the large, complex north-east corner projection.

At the far left is a small two-storey projection — the short east face of the large canted bay on the rear elevation. To its right is a narrow projection rising to first-floor level, apparently a flue. To the right of this is a recent glazed door at basement level; directly above at ground-floor level is an oriel window, possibly not original, with a tiled hipped roof and a recent multi-pane window frame; and at first-floor level there is a large window with a modern frame.

The right-hand side of the east elevation is dominated by the large north-east corner projection. At its left end is a large two-storey mainly glazed curved stairwell bay with a tiled curved roof, added in relatively recent years (apparently around the 1990s), containing a spiral staircase connecting the ground floor to the basement. This appears to have replaced an earlier, possibly larger, bay with a flat roof, since immediately above it on the first floor of the main three-storey section there is a partly glazed doorway with sidelights — similar to that on the first floor of the front elevation — which would originally have led out to a balcony.

The stairwell bay adjoins a larger projection section with a gabled and pan-tiled roof, which corresponds to the one-and-a-half storey section at the left of the front elevation. This section has a slightly lower hipped-roof portion projecting to the east. At basement level in this lower section there is a large window with a modern frame, below and to the right of which a set of stone steps rises to the higher ground to the north. At ground-floor level, directly above the basement window, there is a very large mullioned and transomed window with leaded lights, rising into a relatively large hipped-roof half-dormer. The whole of the basement level is finished in relatively recently applied unpainted roughcast, topped at the upper edge with a bevelled stone course matching that on the front elevation. The ground and first floors are almost completely finished in mock timber framing. The east elevation of the main roof has a centrally positioned gabled dormer matching those on the front.

The south elevation of the north-east corner projection consists of the curved stairwell bay to the left, then a slightly taller two-and-a-half storey gabled bay finished in unpainted roughcast with crow-stepped gables. At basement level of this bay there is a large window with a modern frame; at first floor an oriel window identical to that on the left side of the main east elevation; and in the gable a smaller six-light window. The bay is finished in recently applied unpainted roughcast with rough quoin-like stonework at the right-hand edge; it does not appear to be original, and may have been created following the demolition of a larger projection. Immediately to its right is a small single-storey lean-to porch with a recent partly glazed door. The complex many-faceted roof of the north-east corner projection is largely covered in pan tiles. At the centre of the ridge of the highest section there is the post-1967 tall narrow rendered chimneystack with a pyramidal vented top.

WEST ELEVATION

The west elevation is the least complex of the main faces of the house. It is two storeys high, with a single-storey projection to the left and a large two-storey gabled bay to the right. The single-storey projection is in red brick with a tiled hipped roof. To its west face there is a large mullioned and transomed window with the lights boarded up, and a doorway opening to the right, also boarded up, with a short breeze block wall to the right-hand edge of this face. The ground floor of the large gabled bay to the right is in red brick with two mullioned windows of varying size. The upper portion of the bay is finished in now-dilapidated mock timber framing, with a window to the left of centre at first-floor level with a recent frame. Linking the single-storey projection to the left and the large gabled bay on the north side is a short single-storey lean-to section in red brick with a tiled roof, its west face hidden behind a short red brick yard wall with a timber-sheeted door. The first floor of the main portion of the house, to the left of the large gabled bay and set back above the single-storey projection and lean-to link, is finished in mock timber framing now in very poor condition. The west elevation of the main roof has a slightly left-of-centre gabled dormer matching those on the front and east elevations, but with the central light boarded up and plain glazing to the outer lights. This portion of the main roof retains its original tiles.

REAR (SOUTH) ELEVATION

Due to the close proximity of trees and shrubbery, the rear elevation cannot be observed in its entirety. Apart from a small portion — roughly a quarter of the full length — contained within a gabled bay at the far right, it is much altered and in very poor condition.

At the far left is a large but relatively low two-and-a-half storey projecting section, with the ground floor in red brick and the remainder in dilapidated mock timber framing. At ground-floor level there are two windows, the left one larger with two lights, both with leaded panes. At the far right of the first floor is a window with a mullioned and transomed frame and plain glazing. Rising above the centre point of the first floor is a large three-quarter gabled dormer with a modern window frame and dilapidated mock timber framing to the gable. To the immediate left of this dormer the basement level is exposed.

Originally the main section of the rear elevation rose three to three-and-a-half storeys, with a large gable at each end. Most of the roof between these two gables has been lowered by a complete storey, causing the loss of a large section of the original first floor and above on this side of the building. A large part of the façade beneath the lowered roof section is completely missing, leaving a significant portion of the ground floor and basement exposed to the elements, and the veranda that originally stretched across the full length of the ground floor of this block has been removed entirely.

At basement level to the left, the wall is in brick with three large windows with modern frames. To the right of this the wall is missing and the basement rooms are exposed to the elements. Further right the basement wall is canted, beneath a canted bay, and finished in recently applied unpainted roughcast; to the south cant of this section there is a large window with a modern frame.

At ground-floor level to the left there are two large mullioned and transomed windows with leaded lights, the façade being finished in render that is largely in poor condition with some areas having fallen away to reveal the brick construction behind. To the right of this a large section of walling is missing. At the far right is a large canted bay with large modern windows and a large mono-pitched pan-tiled roof with a pronounced overhang.

At first-floor level to the left there are two large six-light mullioned and transomed windows with leaded panes, positioned very close together and partly set within the large gable. Near the apex of the gable, on the uppermost floor, is a pair of much smaller single-light windows with leaded panes as before. The whole of this first-floor and gable area is finished in mock timber framing, now in very poor condition with much of the render between the timbers having fallen away to reveal the brick construction. Immediately to the right of this gable a portion of the first-floor façade has fallen away, and further right the floor level drops a complete storey, exposing a large east-facing section of internal walling. In the centre of this lower section of roof there is a relatively large gabled dormer that appears to have been constructed using components salvaged from elsewhere in the building; it has an overly large six-light mullioned and transomed window, a gable that remains open, partly weather-boarded sides, and pan-tiled roof covering, with a ragged unfinished eaves on the main roof below it, with rafters exposed. At the far right, rising above the roof of the ground-floor canted bay, is another large gable. At first-floor level just below this gable there is a large ten-light mullioned and transomed window with leaded panes; in the floor above, close to the apex of the gable, there is a marginally smaller window with a modern frame. Both the gable and the first-floor area below it are finished in mock timber framing that appears to have been restored or renewed relatively recently. To the west-facing side of this gable's roof — its area now enlarged by the lowering of the roof to the west — there is a windowless dormer-like structure with a steeply pitched pan-tiled gabled roof, acting as the wide base for a tall narrow rendered chimneystack that rises from its ridge; the west-facing gable face of this structure appears to be finished in either render or timber with an unusual fan-like design, though it was not possible to observe this face in its entirety. The original portions of the south elevation of the main roof retain their original tiling; the new lower section and the right-hand gable are covered in pan tiles. Immediately to the right of the left-hand gable there is a small hipped-roof dormer, matching those on the front elevation but retaining its original tiling.

SETTING AND OUTBUILDINGS

The house is set within extensive grounds to the east of Melmount Road. At the entrance, to the north-west of the house itself, stands a matching gatehouse in a 16th-century style, directly modelled on the gatehouse at Stokesay Castle in Shropshire, containing a porter's residence and a covered porch carried over the roadway. To the south of the gatehouse there is a picturesque stable block in red brick with a tiled roof and a decorative bell-cote. Both the gatehouse and stable block were designed by Unsworth as part of the same commission. An artificial pond in the ravine crossed by a two-arch stone bridge of medieval character lies between the gate and the house. The grounds were laid out in terraces with low red brick retaining walls in keeping with the character of the house. The house, gatehouse, and stable block together form a group of considerable importance in the context of the planned village of Sion Mills.