'Peacefield', 22 Carbet Road, Ballynacor, Portadown, Craigavon, County Armagh, BT63 5RJ

Peacefield is a substantial two-storey farmhouse made up of two distinct phases of construction: a formal late Georgian-style front block with a hipped roof, built around 1840, and a long, low two-storey vernacular rear wing — the original house — dated 1788. Together they form a roughly T-shaped plan, with the rear wing running east to west and the front block positioned at its eastern end. The property is a good and relatively well-preserved example of how many modest country dwellings in this period assumed grander pretensions through the addition of a formal front block, effectively demoting the original farmhouse to the status of a rear return.

The house sits within spacious, partially wooded grounds at the end of a long drive — originally a public road — off Carbet Road, about two miles north of Portadown. To the east is a forecourt entered from the north, beyond which lies a large lawn fringed with mature trees. To the west is a collection of outbuildings, some arranged around a farmyard. A conservatory has been added more recently to the south side of the front block.

The Front Block

The front elevation is a typical three-bay Georgian composition. At the centre of the ground floor is a broad elliptical-headed doorway with a panelled timber double door, sidelights with decorative tracery and panelled aprons, and a radial fanlight. The door and sidelights are framed by pilaster-like panelled timber jambs rising to a moulded cornice beneath the fanlight. Two generously proportioned splayed stone steps — which appear to be relatively recent replacements — lead up to the door, and a projecting period-style lamp sits directly above the fanlight. To each side of the doorway is a flat-arched window opening with a painted stone cill and a hornless timber sash frame with Georgian panes (six over six). Three matching windows appear at first-floor level.

The south face of the front block is now almost entirely covered by a recently added timber-framed conservatory with a canted end to the east and a gable end to the west. One of the two original ground-floor window openings survives intact; the other has been converted to a doorway connecting the house to the conservatory.

The north face of the front block has two symmetrically arranged ground-floor windows with two more directly above at first-floor level, all matching the front elevation. A projecting lamp is set between all four windows. Only a small section of the west face of the front block is exposed due to the size of the return wing; this face appears to have a single window, matching those elsewhere, positioned to the right at first-floor level.

The Rear Return (the 1788 House)

The north face of the long rear return has an irregular arrangement of openings. On the ground floor, from left to right, there are three windows with a doorway between the first and second. The doorway has a modern timber and glazed door. The first three windows are similar in character to those on the front block, though shorter. A fourth window further to the right is much smaller, set at a high level, and appears to be filled with a fixed timber frame with Georgian-style panes. Directly above the doorway is a small slate plaque inscribed "D Ruddell 1788", decorated with naïve depictions of heraldic motifs including wreaths, a star, and a reindeer. At first-floor level there are four relatively widely spaced windows: the first three match the ground-floor windows in character, although the glazing bars of the second have been recently replaced with thicker ones. The fourth window to the far right is very narrow and appears to have a plain timber sash frame, though it could not be examined closely. Much of the western half of this face is obscured by tall trees.

The south face of the return has an even more haphazard arrangement of openings. At the far left is a broad doorway with a timber-sheeted door, with a small boarded-up window opening directly above it. To its right is an external stone stair leading to an upper-level doorway with a timber-sheeted door. To the right of the stair is a large flat-arched vehicle entrance with a timber-sheeted double door, which was probably originally narrower. Further right is a small window with a fixed timber frame with Georgian-style panes. Next comes a relatively large single-storey lean-to projection with a doorway with a timber-sheeted door to its left and a wide window opening with a tripartite timber sash frame (four over two, six over three, four over two) to its right. Adjacent to the projection is a small elliptical-arched window with a fixed timber frame, Georgian panes, and spoke tracery. To the right of this is a doorway with a relatively recent half-glazed timber door.

At first-floor level, to the right of the upper-level doorway, there are five windows of varying sizes. The first and fourth are largely identical, with six-over-six timber sash frames. The second is very small with a six-over-three sash frame, as is the slightly larger fifth window at the far right. The third window is somewhat squat and has a fixed timber frame with six Georgian-style panes.

The entire building facade is finished in roughcast and painted, with the window and door reveals largely finished in smooth render. The roof of the front block is hipped, while the return is gable-ended; both sections are slated. The front block roof overhangs slightly and carries two centrally positioned rendered chimneystacks with a third to the west side near the eaves; three small symmetrically arranged skylights also appear on this side of the roof. The return has a large rendered chimneystack to the east of centre on the ridge and another further to the west, set close to the eaves. Cast-iron rainwater goods are used throughout.

The Outbuildings

The outbuildings to the rear and west of the house are largely grouped around a concrete-covered yard. They are single to one-and-a-half-storey gabled structures with roughcast facades and mainly slated roofs. They have flat-arched vehicle and pedestrian doorways of various sizes, mostly filled with timber-sheeted doors, and flat-arched windows mainly fitted with replacement timber frames dating from around the 1970s. Some openings may not be original; certain vehicle doorways in particular appear to have been enlarged. The west side of the yard is enclosed by a relatively tall rubble wall. To the southeast, beyond the yard, is a small freestanding outbuilding that has been enlarged in recent years and now contains two garages. Immediately to its east is a small enclosed formal garden with a pond, also a recent addition.

Historical Background

According to the present owners, the "D Ruddell" of the 1788 datestone was one David Ruddell, a descendant of a French soldier who had been granted land in Ballynacor as a reward for service in the Williamite army in the 1690s. While the datestone points to 1788 as the date of the original house — consisting of all or part of the long rear return — the family's presence on the land for at least ninety years before this date might lead one to expect an earlier structure. The 1788 date may therefore refer to an extension or alteration of an existing dwelling, perhaps the raising of the roof. The vernacular character of the return lends some weight to this idea, though it is equally possible that the original family home was on a different site and the return does indeed date entirely from 1788.

The return is shown on the Ordnance Survey map of 1835 and recorded in the valuation of the following year as a relatively old slated house in the hands of David Ruddell, measuring 45 feet by 20 feet by 13½ feet, with an outbuilding of 54 by 20 by 13 feet, all with a rateable value of £6 15s 0d. Writing in 1999, C. E. B. Brett — drawing on information from the owners — identifies this as the same David named on the 1788 datestone.

By the revised Ordnance Survey map of 1860 the house is shown complete and named Peacefield. The valuation of 1862 records dimensions of 12 yards by 7 by 2½ storeys for the front block, with various measurements for the dwelling portion of the return (7 by 11 by 2, 6 by 2 by 2, and 6 by 2 by 1), and slated outbuildings of 18 by 7 by 2, 11 by 7 by 1, 4 by 7 by 1, and 7 by 5 by 2. A David Ruddell is noted as occupant. According to Brett, this was the son of the David of the first valuation, and it was the father who added the formal front block sometime between the first valuation of 1836 and his death in 1843. The current owners have no knowledge of the precise date of this part of the building, but around 1840 appears reasonable, particularly since the 1862 valuers seem to have regarded it as at least twenty years old by that point.

David Ruddell died in 1896, and the house was recorded as vacant in 1901. The valuations record that a Selina Hanna occupied some rooms until November 1903, with a Letitia Wilson listed as resident in 1904. Two years later the house was again marked as vacant, but in 1910 Letitia Wilson acquired the freehold from the Manchester estate and remained at Peacefield for the next ten years. The property was subsequently acquired by Thomas D. Gibson. In 1966 Peacefield was bought from the Gibsons by the Craigavon Development Commission to facilitate the building of the nearby M12 motorway. The present owner began renting the property in 1967 and eventually acquired it some decades later when the Commission was wound up. The conservatory was added around 1995.