Ballyvally House, 27 Dromore Road, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4EE

Ballyvally House is a two-storey, four-bay detached Georgian farmhouse built around 1800, located north of Dromore Road to the east of Banbridge town centre in the townland of Ballyvally. It is a good example of its type and its gradual development over time, retaining much original architectural detail and historic fabric, though its setting has been somewhat compromised by modern housing development on surrounding land in recent years. A group of well-preserved outbuildings in the rear yard and a walled garden add further interest to the site.

The original house is a rendered, painted smooth render block on a symmetrical rectangular plan, with a pitched natural slate roof finished with blue/black angled ridge tiles and raised verges. The rendered chimneystacks to the gables carry tall terracotta pots. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods run on projecting eaves, with cast-iron downpipes and hoppers. A two-storey gabled extension, added in the late 20th century, abuts the north-west end of the original block and is slightly taller than it; this extension, together with a gabled two-storey return and a projecting porch to the rear, is of painted brick construction.

The principal elevation faces south-west and presents the original three-bay symmetrical façade across both floors. Ground floor windows are 6/6 timber sliding sashes; first floor windows are 3/6. At the centre of this façade is an elliptical-arched entrance opening containing an eight-panel flat recessed timber door, approached by four stone steps, flanked by three-paned sidelights and surmounted by an ornate timber fanlight. The gabled late 20th century extension to the left is two windows wide at each floor level.

The north-west elevation is occupied by the two-storey extension, which has a single 1/1 window at the centre and a wall-headed chimney to the right at first floor level, and two elongated 1/1 windows at ground floor level.

The north-east (rear) elevation is more complex. The main rectangular block to the left is abutted by a two-storey gabled return containing a 1/1 window to the right of centre at first floor level, with a wall-headed chimney to the far left, a timber-sheeted door to the right, and a small single-storey flat-roofed extension to the left; the remaining faces of this extension are blank except for a small square window to the right cheek. The left cheek of the return has two 1/1 windows on each floor; the right cheek has two 1/1 windows at ground floor only. The return is flanked by a flat-roofed dormer that is fully glazed with multi-paned casements, and a 6/6 window at first floor level. To the left is a flat-roofed single-storey projecting porch with a four-panelled timber door; the left cheek has a window, the right cheek is blank. A 2/2 window with horizontal glazing bars sits to the left of the porch, with a small square window to the right. To the right of the return is an enlarged quadripartite timber casement window set within an elliptical-arched recess. The gabled late 20th century extension to the right of the rear elevation has a small square window at attic level, three 1/1 windows at first floor (the left two being paired and narrow), and two elongated 1/1 windows at ground floor; the left cheek is blank and the right cheek is as described for the north-west elevation.

The south-east gable has a 6/6 window to the right at first floor and a 4/4 window at the centre of ground floor, with a chimney to the ridge and a wall-headed chimney to the far right.

In the rear yard to the east stands a two-storey roughcast rendered slated barn, five openings wide at first floor with three louvred vents. At ground floor it is nine openings wide, comprising timber-sheeted latch doors and 1/1 timber sash windows. Two multi-paned dormers are located to the north-east of the main house.

The house occupies a mature, elevated site set back from Dromore Road, now surrounded by modern storey-and-a-half and two-storey dwellings. It is accessed via a tarmacadam driveway from the south, flanked by slender gate piers and a modern timber fence. This leads to a tarmacadam rear yard, which is entered through a rubble stone wall with a red brick and rubble stone gate pier supporting modern timber gates. To the far left of the yard is a modern canopy with a corrugated tin roof supported on slender metal piers. To the south-east is a garage and shed with a curved frontage, having timber-sheeted and glazed garage doors. The yard is enclosed to the east by a pair of wrought-iron gates and to the south by a rubble stone and red brick wall, through which two original timber-sheeted doors lead into a walled garden. A timber greenhouse on a red brick base abuts the wall to the north. The walled garden is laid to lawn with a variety of mature trees and gravelled paths.

The house appears on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, shown without the north-west extension and with a single outbuilding to the rear. By the Second Edition of 1860 little had changed on the site, though the house was now named Ballyvally House and a square outbuilding had been added to the north-west, later taken down by around 1903 as confirmed by the Third Edition Ordnance Survey map.

Griffith's Valuation of around 1863 records the house as occupied by Thomas Crawford and valued at £23; Crawford held the property from a Mrs Whittle. Crawford was a Justice of the Peace who had lived in the townland of Ballyvally from at least 1852, and was a member of the locally prominent Crawford family, linen merchants who operated Crawford and Lindsay Co. and occupied several notable residences in Banbridge, including Ballievey House and Tullyhenan. Crawford remained at Ballyvally House until his death in 1872, after which his wife Anne occupied the property until 1880. The house then passed through several occupants over the following decade. In 1880 the Reverend James Scott, incumbent of Bannside Presbyterian Church, was recorded as occupant, though he had vacated the house by 1883, presumably to take up the Manse on Reilly Street. Ownership of the property transferred in 1887 from Mrs Whittle to John Flanigan, who held it until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1930.

In 1896 Norman Ferguson — son of Thomas Ferguson of Edenderry House and a linen merchant — took over the house. The 1901 Census records Ferguson (aged 34, Presbyterian) living there with his wife Jessie and their two sons. The Census Building Return described the house as a first-class dwelling of 18 rooms, with a stable, cow house, dairy, piggery, fowl house and two barns among its out-offices, located in the two-storey barn and the minor outbuildings to the rear. Norman Ferguson had vacated the house by 1906 when Edward Wylie, a Union Clerk, became the new occupant, remaining until 1913, though not recorded in the 1911 Census. In 1919 the Flanigan family came into possession and lived there until 1926, when John Murphy, a coal merchant, took over; he died that same year. In 1928 Thomas Dickson Ferguson took possession of the house. Ferguson, along with his brother James Dickson Ferguson, was a director of the linen firm Thomas Ferguson and Co. on the Lurgan Road, one of the most extensive and important factories in Banbridge's linen industry. He served in the army during the First World War and was appointed High Sheriff of County Down in 1956. Thomas Dickson Ferguson died in 1980, at which time he was still residing at Ballyvally House.

Prior to 1974 a two-storey extension was added to the north-west gable of the house, and the building was listed in 1977. The house remains in residential use. The outbuildings to the rear have been well maintained and a number of small additions have been made to the site.