Elmfield, 23 Moyallan Road, Ballymacanallen, Portadown, CRAIGAVON, County Down, BT63 5NH

Elmfield (formerly known as Elmfield Castle) is a two-storey-with-attic, three-bay country house in the Scots-Baronial style, built around 1870 to designs by architect William Spence — who also designed nearby Gilford Castle — and incorporating an earlier Georgian country house within its fabric. It stands in extensive mature grounds to the east of Moyallan Road, north of Gilford town centre.

The house is arranged on a U-shaped plan comprising a three-stage square entrance tower with an adjoining turret, and two gabled wings. There are single-storey extensions to both the east and west wings as part of the original design, with a two-storey annexe abutting the east extension. A two-storey flat-roofed L-shaped modern extension was added to the rear in 1961, joining the two side wings, and abutted by a single-storey kitchen extension of the same date. To the left is a modern sun-room and to the right a felt-roofed canopy providing a sheltered walkway to a modern entrance door.

The roof is pitched natural slate with leaded ridges, crow-stepped gables flanked by pepperpot towers, and sandstone chimneystacks carrying tall clay pots. Cast-iron ogee rainwater goods are supported on corbelled eaves brackets. The external walling is rock-faced limestone on a granite plinth, with ashlar sandstone quoins and dressings, and moulded string courses between floors. The windows are replacement 1-over-1 timber sliding sash with chamfered sandstone sills set in surrounds, some surmounted by label moulds.

The principal elevation faces north and comprises a two-storey central bay flanked by a gabled bay to the left (with attic) and the three-stage entrance tower to the right. The entrance tower has corner tourelles and a decorative crenellated parapet, with mullioned windows at all floors on both the north and west elevations, except at ground-floor level to the north, where a slightly projecting porch is set. The porch is entirely in ashlar sandstone and is reached by two bull-nosed stone steps. It contains an eight-panelled timber door set in a chamfered recess with a corbelled frieze, flanked by projecting piers and surmounted by a diamond-panelled frieze with a central coat of arms bearing the motto "FORTES FORTUNA JUVAT" (Fortune favours the brave). Dropped ornaments hang from the panelled projectors flanking the frieze, and to the right is an ornate bronze bell-push. Abutting the southwest corner of the tower is a four-stage stair turret with a small round-headed window at each stage and a decorative parapet. The central bay is recessed and has mullioned windows flanked by slender windows to the first floor, and mullioned windows to the ground floor. The gabled bay to the left has a small window to the attic, paired windows to the first floor, and a four-paned canted bay window with a fretted balustraded parapet to the ground floor.

The east elevation has a projecting gable to the centre of the ground floor with a small window to the attic, paired windows to the first floor, and a tripartite box bay window to the ground floor, plus a window at both ground and first floor to the left. The south (rear) elevation is complex, arranged around the U-shaped central courtyard. The west elevation has a two-storey central bay flanked by slightly projecting crow-stepped gables. The central bay has a parapet, a mullioned window to the first floor, and a projecting entrance with mullioned double-leaf glazed timber doors to the ground floor. The left and right gables each have a loop window to the attic, mullioned windows to the first floor, and four-paned canted bay windows with fretted balustrades to the ground floor.

The building has been restored by its present owners. While the historic interior has been compromised, some original fabric survives, and the external architectural detailing is largely intact with its Victorian proportions retained. The modern additions to the rear do not significantly compromise the overall design.

The house stands in extensive mature grounds. The garden was re-landscaped in the early 1960s and the driveway altered to reflect the original Georgian design, which originally brought carriages to the rear of the property. A gravelled driveway from the northwest leads to the rear coach yard, where outbuildings are arranged around a central cobbled yard. These outbuildings and stables are largely well preserved, with rendered walls on a contrasting plinth and some original 6-over-6 timber-framed windows with painted projecting sills; louvred vents and timber-sheeted doors also survive. The east section has been refurbished as accommodation, with modern double-leaf glass panel doors and a metal balcony inserted at first-floor level. A segmental carriage arch to the south leads to an enclosed yard containing the remains of a Georgian farmhouse. The gardens are lawned on all sides with mature trees, including some re-planted elm trees; a ha-ha lies to the west and a pond to the southwest. The modern entrance to the northwest on Moyallan Road has a yellow brick boundary wall and gate piers, with the former gate lodge to the left side of the entrance. This gate lodge is a separately listed building and contributes to the group value of the site.

The history of Elmfield is closely bound up with the linen industry of the Bann Valley. In the late 18th century the Elmfield lands belonged to the Christy family, Quakers who are thought to have introduced the linen industry into the area in the late 17th century. In 1806, James Christy of Stramore granted the Elmfield property to his relative and business partner in the firm of Christy and Dawson, William Dawson. An earlier house already existed on the property at this point — the structure shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 as an L-shaped building with a row of outbuildings to the rear, and listed in the Townland Valuation at £17 16 shillings. That two-storey house with cellar measured 38.6 feet by 21 feet, and a number of outbuildings were also recorded, including a coach house, potato house and barn, one of which was thatched and had a back wall of mud. The occupier was named as William Dawson. Map and field evidence suggest that this Georgian house and its outbuildings were partially incorporated into the present house and stable courtyard.

The head rent to the property was bought in 1832 by James Uprichard of Bannvale. Newspaper evidence shows that the next recorded occupier, James Dickson, was resident at the house from at least 1851. The second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 shows the house substantially remodelled or rebuilt to the north of the original Georgian structure, with two gate lodges — one at the head of a driveway leading to the service courtyard, and another at the head of the main entrance driveway leading to the western façade, which was then the principal entrance. Outbuildings forming a stable courtyard, an ornamental pond and formal gardens with newly planted trees are also shown. James Dickson was a partner in the linen firm Dunbar, Dickson and Co., whose factory in Gilford was largely responsible for the town's growth and prosperity in the second half of the 19th century. Dickson is recorded as purchasing the house and lands in 1861, though he had already been resident for at least a decade.

The building seen today largely dates from around 1870. Stone-cutters were working at the site in 1867 and valuation records confirm that a new house and outbuildings had been completed by 1872, valued at £110 and built at a cost of £4,000 by contractor William Barclay. Architectural historian J. A. K. Dean attributes the design to William Spence, who had also designed Gilford Castle for James Dickson's brother Benjamin. By the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1901–2, further remodelling had taken place, including the addition of square and circular towers, and the main entrance had moved to the northern façade.

The construction of Elmfield unfortunately coincided with a downturn in the linen trade, and the Dickson family were eventually forced to sell. Houghton Dickson was the occupier in 1881 but by 1883 the house was vacant. In 1884 it was purchased by Forster Green, a tea and coffee merchant, for his daughter Emily and her husband Henry Albert Uprichard, of the local Quaker linen dynasty. Henry Albert Uprichard died in November 1901, leaving Elmfield and its estate of 260 acres, together with the plate, pictures, horses, carriages and furniture, to his eldest son William Forster Uprichard, who was also left an equal share in the Springvale Bleach Works, a linen enterprise employing around 130 workers at the turn of the 20th century. The 1911 census records William Uprichard, a member of the Society of Friends (Quakers), living at the house with his wife and two-year-old son Rutledge, along with a staff of five — a parlourmaid, housemaid, cook, nurse and a 15-year-old milk boy from County Armagh. The 38-room house with 21 windows to the front façade was classified as first class. The Uprichard family were noted for horses, dogs and hunting; William Forster Uprichard was an accomplished amateur jockey, and both he and subsequently his son Rutledge won the title of Irish Amateur Champion.

At the time of the First General Revaluation of 1933–34, the house and outbuildings were revalued at £105, with £38 10 shillings for agricultural buildings. The ground floor at that time comprised three reception rooms, a billiard room, a smoke room, cloaks, a kitchen, scullery, two pantries and a schoolroom. The first floor contained a bathroom with bath and water closet, two separate water closets, a pantry, ten bedrooms, a dressing room and two linen cupboards. Five further bedrooms were on the second floor. The valuer described it as a good first-class farmhouse. Some glasshouses, a conservatory and a badminton hall recorded at that time appear subsequently to have been lost.

William Forster Uprichard died in 1949 leaving Elmfield to his son Richard Rutledge Kane Uprichard, known as Rut. Rutledge died in 1952 and the castle passed to Samuel Calvert in 1954. Calvert did not occupy the house and was unable to let it, with contemporary valuation records noting it was much too large for present-day requirements. Many of the outbuildings were in ruins and of no value by 1956, and the valuation of the house and outbuildings was reduced to £80 and £20 respectively following complaints by Calvert and suggestions that he might have to demolish the building. The house was subsequently sold to the Shaw family, who began a programme of restoration and were resident when the building was listed in 1977. A single-storey annexe to the western façade that had been demolished behind its front elevation was rebuilt as a sun-room in the early 1990s to designs by Brian Emerson Associates of Hillsborough.

The gardens were originally planted in the late 1860s with rhododendrons, azaleas and specimen trees, with rose gardens around the house and a walled kitchen garden. When the Shaw family purchased the house in 1958 they began restoring the grounds, and in 1989 Belgian landscape designer François Goffinet was commissioned to develop an overall plan, as part of which the course of the entrance driveway was also altered.

Elmfield is a good example of the work of a prominent architect with important connections to the linen industry of the area. It is of special architectural and historic interest for its style, proportion, ornamentation, plan form, setting and group value with the gate lodge, as well as for its association with key figures in the regional linen trade and for the survival of a largely intact Georgian coach yard.