Lenaderg Lodge, 131 Lurgan Road, Lenaderg, Banbridge, Co. Down, BT32 4NL

Lenaderg Lodge is a fine, symmetrical detached house of three bays and two storeys with attic, built around 1878 for a farmer named William McWilliam, who leased the plot from an Alexander Stewart. It stands on the east side of the Lurgan Road in the townland of Lenaderg, just north of Banbridge, and is prominently visible from this busy road between Banbridge and Gilford. A previous house on the site, located slightly to the west, is shown on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1860 and was likely replaced during the construction period. The new house first appears, captioned "Lenaderg Cottage", on the fourth edition map of 1903–18, though its construction date of around 1878 is supported by the Annual Revision records, which show a marked increase in rateable value from £11 10s in 1872 to £24 10s in 1878.

The house is built to a rectangular plan in a typical late Victorian style, handsomely proportioned with a generously sized attic that gives the roof a rather steep pitch. The roof is covered in natural slate, with punctuated terracotta ridge tiles terminated with curved finials, and two rendered chimneystacks carrying terracotta pots. Half-round aluminium gutters and downpipes have been fitted, though the original cast-iron soil pipes survive. The walls are finished in painted smooth render over a contrasting plinth. The principal, west-facing elevation is symmetrically composed, with a central entrance flanked by single-storey canted bay windows, and first-floor openings aligned above. The entrance features an original painted timber four-panelled door with a rectangular red glass overlight and cast-iron door furniture, set within a moulded architrave beneath a flat canopy supported on scrolled foliated console brackets; two stone steps lead up to the door. Windows throughout are original 2/2 horned sashes retaining their original float glass, with moulded architraves and painted masonry cills; replacement timber sashes of matching pattern have been fitted to the ground-floor rear. Profiled bargeboards are fitted to the gutters, and decorative bargeboards also feature on the roofline.

The north gable has two windows to the ground and first floors and a single centrally placed attic window. It is extended at ground-floor level by a kitchen return, which is lit to the north by two windows as original. The rear elevation is abutted to the right by this return, which is lit at ground floor by three windows replaced to match the originals. A tall round-headed three-light stairwell window with coloured margin lights and original obscured glass is a notable feature here. The return has modern multi-pane French doors to the east gable and a modern timber-sheeted door to the south cheek. The attic is accessed from the south gable only, via a high-level timber loading door. The south gable is detailed as the north, with replacement windows to the rear ground-floor rooms, and is abutted by the garden wall and a pergola.

Internally, historic detailing is intact and of good quality throughout.

The one-and-a-half-storey rear return has been refurbished. The principal detached outbuilding to the south-east was altered and enlarged around 1879, with an additional floor added and the footprint widened by the construction of new outer walls, as supported by the Annual Revision records and physical evidence on site.

The house is set slightly back from the main road, with large mature gardens to the front, north, and rear. The front garden is bounded to the road by a set of early 20th-century cast-iron railings, with a garden gate set on a pair of polygonal cast-iron pillars. A further wrought-iron pedestrian gate hung on granite pillars leads to the main garden. The rear garden is separated from the large north garden by a long rubble stone garden wall, likely earlier than the house itself, which is inset with a round-headed timber-sheeted garden gate.

Original single-storey outbuildings including a laundry and coach-house are located to the rear, forming a narrow enclosed yard. The house was formerly accessed via a large enclosed yard to the south, though this access has since been blocked for safety reasons. To the east is a large two-storey outbuilding containing stables, a byre, and a hayloft. All outbuildings have pitched slate roofs, and their walls are limewashed over a mixture of rubble stone and brick, set on granite plinth blocks. Openings are fitted with timber doors, some of which are replacement tongue-and-groove boarded doors matching the originals. The hayloft is accessed to the north by a set of external steps, and also internally from the end byre via original wooden steps through a trapdoor. To the rear is an early 20th-century cowshed. A further outbuilding, running parallel to the existing one, was erected sometime after the mid 20th century. Some early 19th-century garden walls and part of the mid 19th-century outbuildings also survive on site.

Following the death of William McWilliam in 1886, his son Frederick — a solicitor — took over as occupier, living at the property with his sister and a servant, as recorded in the 1901 Census. Around this time a coach-house was added to the list of outbuildings, though this appears to have been a remodelling of an existing late 19th-century structure rather than a new build. The 1911 Census records that a coachman, Robert Kincaid, resided with nine members of his family in one of two small dwellings a short distance to the south.

Frederick was the uncle of the renowned 20th-century surrealist sculptor Frederick Edward McWilliam, who was born in 1909 and grew up in a house in Newry Street in nearby Banbridge. A historic photograph of around 1911, held by the present owner, shows the young McWilliam standing on the window sill of Lenaderg Lodge, supported by his uncle. Upon Frederick's death, McWilliam's father William became owner of the property, though according to the present owner F.E. McWilliam himself owned it for a short period following his father's death, before it passed to a John Porter in 1924 and subsequently to Joseph Quail in 1944.