51 Doughery Road, Banbridge, Dromore, County Down, BT32 4JZ

An asymmetrical one-and-a-half storey farmhouse of four bays, built circa 1860 with later alterations. The building is constructed in roughcast render on a contrasting plinth and stands on the west side of Doughery Road, south of Banbridge, in an unspoiled rural setting surrounded by farmland.

The main structure comprises a rectangular plan with a full-height extension to the north, a two-storey return to the rear, and a projecting gabled porch to the east. The pitched natural slate roof features bargeboards to the gables, angled ridge tiles, and three red-brick chimneystacks. Cast-iron half-round rainwater goods run along the overhanging eaves.

The principal elevation faces east and displays three dormer windows to the first floor (the left one more widely spaced), each with 2/2 glazing and decorative bargeboards. The ground floor features a gabled porch with overhanging eaves on exposed rafter tails and a decorative bargeboard. The porch contains a bolection-moulded four-panel timber door in a smooth surround with brass knocker and knob, flanked by narrow leaded-and-stained windows. Beyond the porch are a tripartite window to the left, a 2/2 window, and another tripartite window to the right. The south gable is blank.

The west (rear) elevation is partly abutted at centre by the two-storey return. The right section has two windows to the first floor and a window to the ground floor left, with replacement double-leaf half-panelled and glazed timber doors to the right. The left section has windows to both first and ground floor right. The return is blank to its gable. The north elevation displays two windows to the first floor and a window with half-panelled and glazed timber door with margin panes to the ground floor. The south elevation has three windows to the first floor and a half-panelled and glazed timber door to the left of centre at ground floor, with windows to left and right.

The north gable is abutted by the full-height extension, which contains two elliptical-headed arched vehicular entrances with timber-sheeted doors. This extension has a replacement window to its gable and a four-panelled timber door on the west elevation, along with two modern skylights to the roof.

Windows throughout are a variety of replacement timber-framed sliding sash with horns and exposed boxes in smooth surrounds with projecting painted sills; those to the rear are replacement timber-framed sash.

The setting comprises lawned ground to the front with mature trees and a gravel driveway leading to a yard to the rear and north. A large lawned garden extends to the rear, bounded by mature hedgerow and trees. To the southeast of the yard stands a gabled two-storey outbuilding with roughcast and smooth rendered walls and a corrugated tin roof. This outbuilding has a 1/1 timber-framed sliding sash window to the first floor at its west gable and a timber-sheeted door to the ground floor left.

A building at this location first appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833, though it was not recorded in contemporary Townland Valuations as its value fell below the £3 minimum threshold for inclusion. The current one-and-a-half-storey farmhouse was certainly constructed by the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1859, though it may have been built as early as circa 1830 or possibly circa 1850 as a modification of an earlier dwelling. An outbuilding shown to the east of the house on the 1859 map has since been removed.

According to Griffith's Valuation records of circa 1862, the farm was then occupied by John Ashwood, who leased the property from John Joseph Whyte of Loughbrickisland House, a major landowner in Dooghary townland. The property was valued at £3. Ashwood remained at the farm until his death circa 1870, when his relative Jane Ashwood took over occupancy. In 1889 the farm passed to Samuel Arnott, who resided there until his death in 1910. The 1901 Census records Arnott as a 58-year-old Presbyterian farmer living at Dooghary with his wife Sarah and family. His census building return described the farmhouse as a first-class dwelling (an entry which appears to contain an error regarding room count, as the 1911 Census notes seven rooms). The farm included numerous outbuildings: a stable, two cow houses, a dairy, piggery, fowl house, and barn. These offices were located in the outbuilding to the east of the farmhouse and in an additional outbuilding constructed to the north of the site, which first appeared on the third edition Ordnance Survey map of 1902–03. Arnott purchased the farm outright from the Whyte estate in 1908. Upon his death in 1910, the farm passed to his eldest son Robert, who leased it to Isaac Fergus around 1918 to continue agricultural work.

The building has been extensively renovated with loss of detailing and historic material, altering its original character. The two-storey return to the rear of the farmhouse and all current outbuildings were added prior to the 1975 edition Ordnance Survey map. The property continues to function as a farm.