Brookfield House, 65 Scarva Road, Banbridge, County Down, BT32 3QD

Brookfield House is a symmetrical three-bay two-storey house set in extensive mature grounds to the west of Banbridge town centre on the north side of Scarva Road. The building was constructed circa 1760, with a significant extension added circa 1830 to designs by Thomas Jackson. The house has been severely damaged by fire and is now abandoned.

The structure comprises a rectangular main block of circa 1830 with an adjoining parallel wing dating to circa 1760, and a two-storey return to the rear. A two-storey outbuilding range abuts the north side of the rear return at right angles, forming a central yard. The roof, formerly hipped with some natural slates remaining, has been severely damaged by fire. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods are mounted on bracketed timber eaves.

The walling is harled render with a smooth plat-band between floors. Windows are largely damaged or infilled with concrete blocks; surviving examples are 6/6 timber-framed sash windows without glazing and have projecting sills. The principal elevation faces south and is five openings wide to each floor. At the centre of the ground floor stands a tetra-style portico with fluted columns and pilaster responds, a plain entablature and parapet topped by a decorative cast-iron balustrade. The entrance door has been infilled with concrete blocks, though an ornate carved timber fanlight and six-panelled timber door survive.

The west elevation has a window to the first floor centre. The north elevation is almost entirely abutted by the original house of circa 1760, which forms a parallel wing. This is itself abutted to the right by the two-storey return. The west gable of the original house has three windows to the first and ground floors; the east gable has two windows to the first and ground floors. The two-storey return to the rear is six openings wide at first floor and four openings wide at ground floor, with most infilled with concrete blocks. The east elevation has external steps to a timber-sheeted door at first floor right and remnants of a timber-sheeted door to ground floor left. Three remaining 1/1 timber-framed windows survive to the first floor. The east elevation has a window to the first floor centre.

The property is accessed from the south by a tree-lined mud track leading to a farmyard to the east. Two gate-lodges flank the entrance. A former weaving factory with a tall red-brick chimney and associated early twentieth-century factory buildings stand to the southeast of the house. The yard contains a variety of single and two-storey rendered outbuildings, some with surviving timber-sheeted doors and timber-framed sash windows. One outbuilding to the east has a slated roof with a square metal dovecote to its ridgeline. To the north of the site stands a former two-storey coach-house and adjoining stable block in a dilapidated state, with red-brick chimneystacks to the gables and some timber-framed sliding sash windows with projecting granite sills.

The garden is enclosed to the northeast by a tall rendered wall with an elliptical-headed arch to the yard, which has original wrought-iron gates. The rear yard is accessed to the east by original square gate piers with pointed caps supporting original wrought-iron gates. To the west of the garden stands a Victorian Gothic stone arch folly over a pathway. Land to the south of the site, on either side of the entrance, has recently been developed as a housing estate comprising two-storey semi-detached red-brick dwellings.