98 Half-Way Road, Dromore, Banbridge, County Down, BT32 4HB

98 Half-Way Road, Dromore — Farmhouse, c.1850

This is a symmetrical two-storey, three-bay farmhouse built around 1850, located in the townland of Edenordinary on the main Banbridge to Dromore road, opposite the junction with Mount Ida Road. It sits at the end of a long, straight private lane lined with fencing, with a lawn and concrete forecourt to the front. The building has a rectangular plan with a rear return, and is accompanied by a substantial former hemstitching factory and chimney to the rear, which together with the house form a complex of structures of considerable historical interest, illustrating the development of rural industry in County Down connected to the major linen trade.

Architectural Description

The roof is pitched and covered in natural slate with clay ridge tiles. The chimneystacks are smooth rendered with a corbelled upper course. Rainwater goods are cast iron. The external walls are finished in roughcast cement render over a smooth rendered, undercut plinth.

The principal, south-facing elevation is symmetrically arranged, with a centrally positioned entrance flanked by single windows to either side at ground floor, and three first-floor windows directly above the ground-floor openings. The ground-floor windows are six-over-six timber sliding sash windows with exposed sash boxes and horns, set on replacement concrete cills. The first-floor windows are three-over-six sliding sash. The entrance doorway has a replacement timber door of six raised-and-fielded panels, set within a panelled pilaster frame with scrolled brackets; there are five-paned sidelights, concrete cills, and an elliptical arched fanlight with radial glazing bars. The left gable is blank.

The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged, with first-floor windows to the centre and right bays, a ground-floor window to the right bay, and a replacement timber casement window to the centre. The left bay is fully abutted by a two-storey rear return that projects at an angle towards the northeast, matching the eaves height of the main block but at a lower ridge level. The rear return is lit by sash windows to the upper floor, with insertions and enlarged windows at ground floor. It is further extended by a single-storey gabled shed, similarly detailed. The right elevation is asymmetrically arranged, with a first-floor window to the right and a replacement casement window at ground-floor right.

Setting

The house and outbuildings are clearly visible from the main road. In front of the house is a lawn with a concrete forecourt enclosed largely by a roughcast rendered wall with a wrought-iron pedestrian gate. A further wrought-iron gate and smooth rendered piers adjoin the right gable. To the northwest stands a large former hemstitching factory predating 1830 (listed separately). Beyond this are further modern agricultural units.

Historical Background

The farmhouse in its current form was constructed between 1833 and 1860, first appearing on the second edition of the Ordnance Survey map in 1860, where it is shown as a rectangular building already possessing the two-storey rear return. It was built on the site of a pre-existing hemstitching factory; the two- and three-storey outbuildings to the rear date from the early 19th century and are shown on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1833 as a long rectangular structure, though they were not recorded in the Townland Valuations of the 1830s.

By the time of Griffith's Valuation in 1861, the house and outbuildings were occupied by a Mr John Johnston, who leased the site from the Earl of Clanwilliam at a valuation of £8. The second edition Ordnance Survey map shows that an additional outbuilding had been constructed to the north side of the main outbuilding between 1833 and 1860. By 1864 Johnston had added a yarn store, raising the site's value to £14; by 1868 this had increased substantially to £25 10s, an increase the valuer did not explain directly, though the Annual Revisions record that Johnston had established a hemstitching factory at the site by 1897, suggesting he may have converted his outbuildings in the mid-to-late 1860s to pursue textile manufacture.

The 1901 Census described Johnston, then aged 64 and Presbyterian, as a farmer and linen manufacturer. His sons Joseph (aged 35) and Thomas (aged 31) assisted him in the factory. The census building return described the farmhouse as a first-class dwelling with nine rooms, and listed among its out-offices a stable, two cow houses, a piggery, boiling house, barn, and store. Johnston was evidently a successful businessman; by at least 1907 he had been appointed a Justice of the Peace and attended Petty Sessions at Dromore as a County Councillor, as recorded in the Ulster Town Directories of 1907 and 1910. He continued to reside at the property until his death in 1925, when ownership passed to his eldest son Joseph.

At its height, the hemstitching factory operated between 30 and 40 machines driven by steam power. However, the global recession of the textile industry following the First World War forced Johnston to close the factory, and since the 1920s the site has operated as a farm. A large number of modern corrugated-iron agricultural buildings were subsequently constructed surrounding the original factory, appearing by the time of the 1973 Ordnance Survey map. The property was listed in 1977 and has remained in residential use since that time.

The style and proportions of the farmhouse survive, though the replacement render and casement windows detract from its historic character. The original plan form and much historic fabric remain intact. The hemstitching factory to the rear is a notable example of the small rural factories that once formed part of the landscape of County Down.