20 Katesbridge Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 5PZ

Detached symmetrical three-bay two-storey house built around 1910, comprising rubblestone and redbrick construction with a single-storey redbrick return. The building is rectangular on plan facing west and currently stands vacant on the east side of Katesbridge Road on a bend.

The main elevation presents a symmetrical front with a central segmental-headed door opening formed in voussoired redbrick, now boarded over, with granite sills and concealed sidelights. A single window opening is set to the central bay above, with paired window openings to the left and right at both ground and first-floor levels. The square-headed window openings are formed in redbrick with granite sills and contain single-pane timber sash windows with partially exposed sash boxes, though these are currently boarded over. The ground floor is constructed in coursed rubblestone walling with squared flush stone quoins, while the first floor is redbrick. Both north and south gables are blank, with redbrick chimney flues visible.

The rear elevation is symmetrical and three windows wide, abutted by an off-centre single-storey gable-ended redbrick return. The roof is pitched with natural slate and finished with roll-moulded terracotta ridge tiles. Two profiled yellow brick chimneystacks with glazed pots rise from the structure. Timber bargeboards are present to either gable end, and replacement metal rainwater goods serve the overhanging eaves.

The front garden is small and enclosed, with a central concrete footpath. It is bounded to the road by cast-iron railings mounted on a low rendered plinth wall, with a matching pedestrian gate supported on a pair of fluted cast-iron posts.

The site includes three outbuildings. To the north is a single-storey rubblestone structure with a pitched natural slate roof fronting directly onto the road, featuring two square-headed vehicular openings with vertically-sheeted timber doors. A lean-to extension in redbrick is attached to its rear elevation. Beyond this is a multi-bay two-storey outbuilding set on an east-west axis with rubblestone walling to the ground floor and redbrick to the first floor. The pitched roof is partly covered in corrugated iron to the west and diagonally slated to the east. Square-headed door and window openings throughout are fitted with vertically-sheeted timber doors and shutters. A flight of external stone steps provides access to the east end.

To the south of the house is a further two-storey outbuilding set on an east-west axis with its west gable fronting directly onto the road. It is constructed in lime-rendered rubblestone with a pitched natural slate roof stepped to the centre and finished with cement verges and cast-iron rainwater goods. All openings are square-headed and now boarded over.

Historical context

The current farmhouse dates from around 1910, but the outbuildings on the site are of earlier date. Those to the north include a former farmhouse later adapted as an outbuilding and a structure that was originally single-storey and subsequently raised. The dignified symmetry of the main farmhouse provides a striking contrast with the older vernacular buildings and illustrates a progression of architectural styles reflecting changing rural aspirations for formality.

Buildings are shown on the site in the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833–4, corresponding to the outbuildings still present to the north of the present farmhouse. Part of a southern outbuilding appears on the second edition map of 1860.

The farm does not appear in the Townland Valuation of 1828–40 as it fell below the inclusion threshold. Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 records the buildings as two separate farms. The northern farm, comprising a house, offices and over 23 acres, was valued at £3 and let by Eleanor Thompson to Thomas Jones at an annual rent of £23 7s. The southern plot, including the site of the current farmhouse, was valued at £4 10s and comprised a farm of over 25 acres let to John Pinkerton, who paid Eleanor Thompson an annual rent of £15 7s. A new outbuilding is noted in the fieldbook of the 1860s.

In 1882 the Pinkerton family took over both plots. From 1891 the northern farmhouse was redesignated as outbuildings. The farm subsequently passed to Thomas and then Joseph McKee in the 1890s. A sharp rise in valuation to £10 in 1910 corresponds with the construction of the current farmhouse. Valuer's notes of this period indicate that the vernacular building to the left of the farmhouse was thatched in 1910, whilst other outbuildings were roofed in corrugated iron. The farm remained in the McKee family until at least the 1950s but is currently vacant.