Ulster Bank, 2 & 4 Main Street, Gortin, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT78 8PH

Ulster Bank, 2 & 4 Main Street, Gortin

This is a detached, corner-sited, three-bay single-storey stone bank building with returns, built around 1845 as a rectory to replace an earlier building on the same site. It stands opposite St Patrick's Church of Ireland on the elevated west end of Main Street, and is T-shaped on plan. Although its interior has been altered, it retains considerable architectural and historic interest as a record of the development of a significant building in the village, and as a reflection of the changes in its use over time. The fine quality stonework to both the building and the boundary walls is particularly notable, even though the building was previously rendered.

Exterior

The building faces south on the north side of Main Street and has a three-bay two-storey return to the rear. The roofs are pitched and covered in artificial slate, with black clay ridge tiles and stone ashlar chimneystacks with clay pots to all gables. Half-round cast-iron guttering is fixed to timber boxed eaves, with decorative cast-iron hoppers and cast-iron downpipes fitted with decorative trefoil brackets. The walling is squared and snecked random coursed stone with tooled stone quoins and red brick surrounds to all openings and around the chimney flues. Windows are square-headed with stone sills, red brick surrounds and 6/6 timber sliding sash windows throughout.

The symmetrical three-bay single-storey front elevation has a central gabled entrance porch added around 1980. The window openings appear to have replacement machine-made red brick surrounds and replacement timber sash windows; the sill to the left is granite, while to the right a concrete sill accompanies an inserted ATM machine. The entrance porch has a timber bargeboard and painted ruled-and-lined cement rendered walls. The door opening is elliptical-headed and fitted with a hardwood panelled door with glazed hardwood sidelights and a fanlight. The door opens onto a concrete paved platform with a wheelchair ramp to the left. A low rubble-stone wall with saddle-back coping and matching piers with pyramidal capstones encloses a small raised front area to the street.

The west side elevation is gabled with a single window opening to the left and a projecting flat-roofed entrance porch. This side entrance porch has a flat felt-covered roof with a timber fascia and plastic gutter, and a decorative sandstone blocking course at eaves level. The right cheek of the porch contains a square-headed door opening with a replacement sheet-iron door opening onto a concrete paved area enclosed to Culvacullion Road by a low rubble-stone wall with saddle-back coping and a pedestrian wrought-iron gate to the street.

The two-storey return is centred on the rear elevation, with the entrance porch occupying the inner corner. All windows in the return are 6/6 timber sliding sash windows with ogee horns. A three-sided canted oriel window projects at upper floor level, comprising multi-pane timber casement windows, possibly replacements, with a timber cornice above and resting on a large carved sandstone corbel below. The rear north elevation comprises the large rendered gable of the return with sandstone ashlar quoins and a chimneystack. A two-storey flat-roofed extension is visible to the left. The east side elevation is a rendered gable with a timber bargeboard and sandstone ashlar quoins, containing a single square-headed window opening with a 6/6 timber sash window.

Setting

The building occupies the elevated west end of Main Street, directly opposite the church for which it was originally built as a rectory. A small enclosed paved area sits to the front. A rubble-stone screen wall with concrete coping encloses the rear of the site, extending from the rear return along Culvacullion Road. Abutting the east gable is a further screen wall of the same construction, with a timber door and a pair of steel gates providing vehicular access to the rear.

History

The building was constructed as a rectory for St Patrick's Church of Ireland between 1833 and 1854, and remodelled for use as a bank in 1917 to 1918. The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and the Townland Valuation town plan of around 1834 both show a previous building on the site. By the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1854 the new rectory had been built, though it is uncaptioned. At that stage the old church of 1730 had not yet been replaced — that occurred in 1856 — and by the third edition map of 1905 to 1906 the current building is captioned simply as "Rectory." The fourth edition of 1953 shows that a porch had been added to the western façade, presumably as part of the remodelling by Ulster Bank.

The Townland Valuation of 1828 to 1840 records the former building on the site as the residence of the Reverend Mervyn Wilson, curate of St Patrick's, valued at £10. The diocesan history notes that in 1856 there was no glebe or glebe house in the parish, suggesting the rector lived elsewhere at that time. By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1859 the present building had been constructed and was valued at £20 10s. The Reverend Charles Galway was the occupier, leasing the property from A.W.C. Hamilton. By 1874, the Reverend William James Christie was in residence. Christie was the author of religious pamphlets, poetry and periodicals — some of which survive — detailing what were described as his rather eccentric views, including "Gospel Echoes" (1885) and "Notes on the Great Pyramid" (1881).

By 1887 the Reverend T.J. Willoughby had taken up residence, remaining until 1916 with the exception of an interlude between 1897 and 1906 when the house was occupied by the dispensary doctor George R. Givens. The 1901 census records that Mr Givens occupied the house with his wife and a domestic servant, and that the house had 16 rooms, 3 windows to the front, and 8 outbuildings. A photograph in "Meetings and Memories in Lower Badoney" shows the building when it was still in domestic use, revealing that the front porch was then entered from the side and had a window facing the street. The 1911 census shows the Reverend Willoughby again in residence with his daughter and a domestic servant. By that time the number of rooms had reduced to between 10 and 12, and the outbuildings had reduced to a coach house, harness room, shed and store.

By 1919 the rectory had passed into the ownership of Ulster Bank. The Gortin branch opened on 4 March 1918. According to Knox's "Decades of the Ulster Bank: 1836–1964" (1965), the premises known as The Rectory were purchased from the trustees of the Beltrim Estate in April 1917, but owing to strikes and shortages of building materials the reconstruction was delayed and the office did not open until 3rd May 1918. The first manager was William J. Wilson. Valuation maps confirm that a new porch was added to the western façade and the building was extended to the rear as part of this work.

By 1933 the building comprised public and manager's offices, a WC, cloakroom, strong room, kitchen, pantry, scullery, three reception rooms and five bedrooms. When the valuation was raised to £40 sometime between 1933 and 1935, the bank appealed, stating: "The house is very old and the repairs are very considerable. The whole property was bought at £460." The valuer commented: "Originally I would imagine this property consisted of 2 or 3 old buildings which have been renovated at considerable expense and all joined up as one. The Bank office is very good — plenty of space and well lighted. Dwg part is spacious but very scattered and badly designed. Out-of-date in comparison with present day standards. Interior is in very good repair."

The front porch was rebuilt around 1980 and was subsequently glazed and given a pitched roof at some point after 1990, when the first survey photograph was taken. A new building is now in use as the rectory, to the west of St Patrick's.