'Halfway House', 80 Halfway Road, Edenordinary, Dromore, Co Down, BT32 4HB

Halfway House is a long, plain, two-storey gabled public house on the north-west side of Halfway Road, roughly a mile north-east of Banbridge. Historical sources suggest it assumed much of its present form in 1904, though there has been a building of some sort on the site since the early 18th century. Large single-storey extensions were added to the east end during the 1980s and 1990s. The public bar retains some of its early 20th-century fittings, but the rest of the building has been extensively altered with a corresponding loss of historic fabric.

The long front elevation faces roughly south and is asymmetrical. The walls are finished in a Tyrolean-type render to the front and largely plain render to the rear. The walls are notably thin throughout much of the building, suggesting largely brick construction, though historical records indicate rubble masonry — a discrepancy that may reflect an extensive but not entirely complete rebuild in 1904, with some earlier stonework surviving within the structure. All windows throughout the building are modern, either timber or uPVC; no sliding sashes remain.

Towards the centre-right of the front elevation is a pub front comprising a pedestrian doorway with a relatively narrow panelled double door and a louvred fanlight. Immediately to the left of this doorway is a large window with plain fixed-light glazing. To the right is a similar window, and further right again is another doorway of similar character but slightly broader, with a glazed fanlight inscribed with the word "Bar". Above this entire pub-front ensemble is a traditional-style painted signboard with decorative end brackets.

To the far left of the front elevation is a recent low vehicle doorway with a timber-sheeted double door. To the right of this is a window with a modern frame and non-functioning louvred shutters, followed by a pedestrian doorway leading to the domestic quarters, fitted with a panelled door, plain fanlight, and a cornice hood on decorative brackets — on which a small statue of a lion has been placed. To the right of this domestic entrance is the pub front described above, and to its right is a further doorway similar to those already described but without the fanlight or hood. To the right of that is another window with a modern frame and shutters matching the one to the far left.

At first-floor level there are seven unevenly spaced windows. The five windows roughly to the centre are identical and have shutters. The window to the far left is noticeably smaller and without shutters, while that to the far right has shutters and is slightly larger than the others. The west gable has a single window to the left at first-floor level, and at ground level the gable merges with the west face of a large single-storey lean-to.

The ground-floor level of the east gable is completely covered by a large modern single-storey flat-roofed extension which, on its south side, links to a small single-storey gabled building with a whitewashed stone façade. This smaller building has two small windows to its west gable, a small window to the left on the south face, and a slightly broader window to the east gable.

To the rear, the left-hand side of the elevation is taken up by the large flat-roofed single-storey extension. To the right, this links to another large modern single-storey extension with a gabled roof, which in turn merges to the right with a smaller single flat-roofed section, also modern. The last two extensions project from the rear of the original building. The right-hand extension merges with a small lean-to with a shallow pitched roof, which itself merges to the right with another lean-to of steeper pitch. The left-hand lean-to has a large window, while the right-hand one has a partly glazed door, then a small window, then a further timber-sheeted door. At first-floor level on the original building there are three windows towards the centre and centre-left; the left-hand window is largely similar to the one next to it, while the rightmost of the three is broader and set at a slightly higher level.

The main gabled roof is slated and has four symmetrically arranged rendered chimneystacks with small projecting lights under the verge to the front. The larger lean-to is also slated, but the gabled portions of the extensions are covered in an artificial tile, while the smaller lean-to has a corrugated asbestos roof. A tall rendered chimneybreast and stack, with a very tall pipe-like pot, rises from the roof of the smaller lean-to.

To the south-west of the building stands a small single-storey gabled shed with a whitewashed rubble façade and a roof finished to match the main section of the pub. To the rear is a large garden with a substantial tarmac-covered car parking area to the west. The front of the property has a tarmac forecourt edged by a line of small bollards along the roadside.

The documentary history of the site is relatively detailed. An Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows a long building of similar plan to the present structure, excluding the later extensions. In 1835, during the first valuation, the property was noted as a single-storey building measuring 35½ feet by 18 feet, occupied by a Samuel Cunningham and containing a dwelling and a grocery. A single-storey outbuilding measuring 15 feet by 18 feet was also recorded, apparently attached to the house in a typical linear arrangement. The property was not formally recorded in the finalised first valuation of 1838, when the new rateable threshold of £5 was established.

By the time of the second valuation around 1861, the site had been substantially enlarged and replaced by a considerably longer two-storey public house measuring 20 yards by 8 yards by 17 feet high, accompanied by a two-storey outbuilding of 6 yards by 8 yards by 17 feet — probably joined to the house — along with some smaller single-storey outbuildings, likely rear lean-tos or free-standing structures. The occupant at this time was a James Mackey, and the rateable value was recorded as £16.

The annually revised valuation books record no changes to the building between 1864 and 1904, when the rateable value dropped to £14. An entry in the contemporary valuers' office notebook explains this reduction, stating at the top of the page that the premises were "rebuilt" and including a plan drawing of the new building. The drawing shows that while the rebuilt structure was taller — 21 feet as opposed to the previous 17 feet — its footprint followed the same dimensions recorded in the 1861 valuation. This may explain why the building as it stands today, though appearing largely brick-built, appears to contain some stone-built sections of walling: the rebuild may have been extensive but not entirely wholesale. The notebook itself, however, appears to describe the whole building as constructed of rubble masonry.

The Mackey family appear to have held the lease on the property, running it as both a public house and a post office, until some point between around 1904 and around 1936, when the freehold was purchased by a George Beggs, whose descendants still hold it. The post office is believed to have closed in the mid-20th century. The building was extended to the east end in around 1968 to 1969, though this change is not recorded in the valuation books. That extension was rebuilt in around 1986 and further extended to the rear in 1999.