25 Drumaran Road, Gilford, Craigavon, Co. Down, BT63 6DB

25 Drumaran Road is a symmetrical two-storey, three-bay Georgian farmhouse dating from the early 19th century (built between 1820 and 1839), situated on the south side of Drumaran Road in Kernan townland, between Gilford and Loughbrickland. It is set parallel to the road and is accompanied by a linear range of traditional outbuildings stepping away to the east. The listing covers the house, railings, and outbuildings.

ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

The house is rectangular on plan with a slightly later rear addition whose ridge runs parallel to the main block and is offset slightly to the east. At ground floor, the accommodation extends into the attached outbuilding range to the east, referred to here as the annexe.

The roof is pitched natural slate with rendered verges and ridge; projecting eaves carry cast-iron gutters. The chimneystack to the main gable ends is wet dashed, while the rear addition has a blockwork chimneystack. External walls are wet dashed over rubble stone with contrasting smooth rendered quoins and a rendered plinth; the rear addition is finished in cement render.

The principal (north-facing) elevation is the most architecturally distinguished face of the building. Three bays are symmetrically arranged about a central entrance. The windows are original 6-over-6 timber sash windows with exposed boxes painted in a contrasting colour, set in slightly projecting smooth rendered reveals with painted granite sills and decorative keyblock details. The entrance is particularly fine: a wide elliptical-arched opening with a painted timber doorcase containing replacement three-pane sidelights, a wide spiderweb fanlight, and a six-panel door with raised decorative panels and brass furniture, all divided by slender timber pilasters and framed by smooth rendered quoins and voussoirs. Access to the door is via a paved path, a granite step, and a granite threshold.

The east elevation has an M-profile roofline. The main gable is blank, and there is a uPVC window to the addition at ground floor. The two-storey outbuilding, which incorporates the annexe at ground floor, abuts the addition at the left. The annexe is entered by a modern timber sheeted door with a window to its left; further left is an infilled doorway with a window to its right. All openings are set within painted smooth rendered reveals. A small window at upper level lights the loft above.

The rear elevation is abutted by the two-storey pitched slate-roofed addition. The exposed section at the left is blank. The addition has two uPVC windows to the first floor and is fully abutted at ground floor by a 20th-century lean-to greenhouse with corrugated perspex roofing. The left cheek of the addition has two metal casement windows at first floor and a uPVC window at ground floor left of centre; a timber sheeted door gives access to the greenhouse. The west gable is blank.

The rear windows, annexe windows, and east elevation windows have been replaced with uPVC units, and there are some metal casements to the west side of the addition — alterations that detract from the building's overall integrity.

THE OUTBUILDINGS

The attached outbuilding range comprises a series of two-storey stables with lofts, with the ridge lines stepping down in accordance with the slope of the hill. Roofs are pitched natural slate with skews. The walls are random coursed rubble stone — reflecting the different stages of construction — with fieldstone quoins. Openings are formed in brick. There is a variety of timber window openings, including an unusual six-pane light with a timber frame bearing an indented decorative motif. Doors are timber sheeted; one is set within an infilled coach door opening with a segmental brick head. The loft is reached by a set of external stone steps, each formed from a single piece of granite, with a kennel opening beneath. The section of outbuilding closest to and incorporated with the house is cement rendered with uPVC windows.

INTERIOR

An interesting feature of the interior is a trapdoor giving access to a servant's bedroom — an arrangement that is now rare. This was an occasional feature of larger farmhouses, and the offer of a room accessible only by trapdoor may have made a position at the farm more attractive to young women living away from home. The first general revaluation of 1933–34 records the accommodation as comprising four bedrooms, three reception rooms, a kitchen, and a pantry.

SETTING

The house sits parallel to the road in a rural agricultural setting with panoramic views over the surrounding countryside. There is a large lawned garden to the rear and a small front garden to either side of the entrance path. The boundary to the road is formed by cast-iron railings with spear finials and a matching gate supported on octagonal granite piers with pointed caps. A painted rubble stone wall separates the garden from the farm entrance to the east. The farmyard is accessed through a pair of steel gates supported on rendered piers. Within the gates stands a painted cast-iron water pump, noted as unlikely to be original. Adjacent to the annexe entrance is a circular well constructed in rubble stone.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The farmhouse predates 1833 and the associated outbuildings show a gradual linear development over several decades. The wider rural landscape has changed little since the first maps were surveyed, the principal alteration being the laying of the Banbridge Junction railway to the north in 1859.

The building is shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 in a plan form similar to that which exists today, with a small return and a rectangular outbuilding to the side. The Townland Valuation of 1828–40 lists it as the home of Mr Hugh Burns, with the house and offices valued at £7 5s.

By the second edition map of 1860, the outbuildings had extended both eastwards and westwards, and the slightly offset rear return — still present today — had been added. The house and offices were valued at £8 in 1860, later raised to £13. The valuation records describe a 'stone farm house in good repair' and deem it 'a very neat concern'. The occupier at this time was Anthony Byrne, who leased the property from local landowner Alexander John Robert-Stewart. Subsequent occupiers included Anthony's son Patrick Byrne (recorded 1887, following the will of Anthony Byrne dated 5th August 1885) and Samuel McGaffin from 1891. In 1893 McGaffin built new outbuildings, one of which survives, and raised another by a storey, though no increase in valuation was considered necessary. It was not until the 1903–04 edition of the Ordnance Survey that the final outbuilding is shown.

The 1901 census records 62-year-old Samuel McGaffin living with his wife and two children aged 11 and 16. By 1911 the household had expanded: Samuel and his wife were living with their son, grandson, and cousin, and employed three farm servants — two older men aged 79 and 60, and a boy of 11. The census also records that the couple had had thirteen children, of whom only five had survived. Samuel McGaffin became the owner in fee under land purchase legislation in 1916 but died in September 1917; the house passed to his son Thomas McGaffin in 1919.

The first general revaluation of 1933–34 assessed the house at £8 10s, later reduced to £8, with £4 10s for the outbuildings. The building remains in use as a dwelling.