26 Ballynafoy Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 5BA

26 Ballynafoy Road, Banbridge

A Grade B2 listed building. A symmetrical three-bay two-storey farmhouse built around 1850, rendered in roughcast over rubble masonry, situated on the south side of Ballynafoy Road south of Banbridge. The house is rectangular on plan with a two-storey return to the rear. The pitched roof to the rear of the main block and return is covered in natural slate with blue and black angled ridge tiles and replacement white brick chimneystacks. The front slope of the main block is roofed with fibre cement slate. Replacement uPVC rainwater goods are fitted to the projecting eaves.

The principal elevation faces east and is symmetrically arranged around a central elliptical-headed doorcase with three openings at each floor. The central doorcase contains a replacement raised-and-fielded four-panel timber door flanked by sidelights with panelled aprons and surmounted by a timber spider-web fanlight. The door is accessed via four stone steps with a metal bootscraper attached to the third step. Windows are 6/6 timber-framed sashes without horns, featuring projecting granite sills. Replacement timber casements have been fitted to the rear windows. The south gable is blank. The west (rear) elevation is abutted at centre by the two-storey return, with windows to the first floor left and right and to the ground floor right. The south elevation of the return has two widely spaced first-floor windows, a cement-rendered porch and window at ground floor, and is abutted on the left by the gable of a rubble stone outbuilding with two replacement timber casement windows in smooth rendered surrounds to the east elevation and a modern timber door to the south gable. The north gable has a ground floor right window.

Much historic fabric and character survive, although alterations to the rear of the building have compromised its appearance.

The rubble stone outbuildings predate the house and add to the historic interest as evidence of an evolved site. These are shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 and survived as outbuildings forming a farmyard to the south-west. The present farmhouse with rear return and adjoining single-storey shed first appears on the second edition OS map of 1859, together with an additional outbuilding which still survives to the south of the house. The house is captioned 'Churchview' from the second edition onwards. The farm is listed in the Townland Valuation (1856–64) with John Henry as tenant, the house and offices valued at £5 9 shillings. The dimensions recorded at that time refer to a single-storey thatched farmhouse and three single-storey outbuildings, two of which were thatched. At Griffith's Valuation (1856–64), John Henry continued as tenant under landlord John Sharman Crawford. The house and offices, situated on a farm of over 144 acres, were valued at £16. The farm passed through the Henry family: to Robert in 1873, then to his widow Jane in 1877, another Robert in 1878, and then James Henry in 1886. James appears in the 1901 census as a farmer aged 44 with his wife and three children. The thirteen-room house is designated first class with 19 outbuildings. By 1911 two more children had been added to the family, the youngest aged six, although two children had died at a young age. James Henry died on 30 January 1925, but the farm continued in the Henry family at least until 1954 when it was taken over by Samuel Henry. The first general revaluation of the 1930s lists the accommodation as three reception rooms, a kitchen, scullery and milk room, four bedrooms and a store. The house continues in use as a domestic dwelling.

The property is situated in a relatively isolated rural setting accessed via a narrow laneway to the rear of the house leading to a farmyard with a range of farm buildings. It is surrounded on all sides by farmland and bounded by mature trees and hedgerow. The farmyard contains a variety of traditional outbuildings. A rendered stable block with pitched slate roof and timber-sheeted doors, some with cast-iron hinges, is present. Rubble-stone two and single-storey outbuildings to the south-east and south of the yard are all of traditional construction with pitched slate roofs. A two-storey L-shaped rubble stone barn to the south has a set of external steps and two segmental-headed carriage-arch openings with replacement timber doors. This is a good example of a substantial farmhouse in its original setting of a type becoming increasingly rare.