Stramore House, 82-86 Stramore Road, Gilford, CRAIGAVON, County Down, BT63 6HN

Stramore House is a Georgian country house built around 1794, set back from Stramore Road to the west of Gilford village within extensive grounds. It is a substantial three-storey, seven-bay house of classical proportions and grand scale, with restrained ornamentation throughout. Much of the original fabric survives, and later Victorian alterations and more recent modern additions do not seriously undermine the integrity of the historic structure.

The house is rectangular on plan with a full-height rear return and a modern extension to the rear. The roof is hipped natural slate with roll-top ridge tiles and a leaded central valley, served by large lime-rendered chimneystacks and projecting stone eaves carrying cast-iron gutters. The external walls are finished in ruled and lined lime render over a shallow plinth, dressed with tooled sandstone quoins.

Windows are timber sliding sash — a mix of original and replacement — with projecting bracketed masonry sills and moulded stucco surrounds. Those to the ground floor have a dentilled entablature. Glazing patterns vary by floor: 1/1 panes to the ground floor, 6/6 to the first floor, and 3/3 to the attic.

The principal elevation faces north-west. It is symmetrical and seven windows wide, with a central projecting porch. The porch carries a dentilled entablature and contains a segmental-headed entrance reached by two stone steps flanked by dwarf walls with stone urns on either side. The entrance door has six raised panels and brass door furniture, with a plain transom light above and narrow lancet sidelights to each side. The porch cheeks are lit by segmental-headed 1/1 sash windows.

The north-east elevation is abutted by a recent single-storey canted bay addition, detailed to match the main house. Upper floors on this elevation are lit by a single window to either side, proportioned consistently with the principal facade.

The south-east rear elevation is abutted left of centre by the full-height return, and to the right at ground floor by a large contemporary extension with a monopitched zinc roof. The exposed sections to either side of the return are generally lit by two or three vertically aligned windows per floor, with the exception of two small inserted WC windows to the left of the return. The return itself is lit on all sides at upper floor level, including replacement semi-circular headed windows to the first floor; it is accessed via a semi-circular headed modern door on either cheek.

The south-west elevation mirrors the north-east, with variation at ground floor level where there are paired canted bays, one of which is a recent addition designed to match the existing.

To the rear stands a two-storey stable block of random rubble stone construction with brick-dressed openings. Projecting to the left is a rendered two-storey coach house and to the right a rendered single-storey store. All roofs to these outbuildings are pitched natural slate; windows are replacement timber sashes and doors are timber sheeted.

The house is set within spacious grounds including a large lawned garden to the front and west, planted with mature oak trees, with a stableyard to the rear. The site is enclosed by fencing to the west and north, and to the road at the east by a high rubble stone boundary wall that includes the stone watch tower or folly (listed separately as HB17/01/037B). The main entrance is at the north-east and consists of modern stone-faced walling with electric iron gates, leading to a curving gravel drive and forecourt. A reclaimed post box has been set into one of the gate piers. Outside the immediate site boundary are related outbuildings, now converted to apartments and in separate ownership.

Stramore House was built in 1794 by Joseph Richardson, who had been gifted the land by his stepfather Thomas Christy, a wealthy Quaker linen merchant. The land had previously belonged to the Crozier family, who had been granted a lease in perpetuity in 1692 by Sir John Magill, a descendant of the founder of Gilford. An earlier house is believed to have been built on the site around 1694, though nothing of it survives. Joseph Richardson died in 1801, leaving Stramore to his step-niece Isabella Wakefield and her husband John Nicholson. John Nicholson was the grandfather of General John Nicholson, the Victorian hero of the Indian Mutiny whose statue stands in Lisburn. John Nicholson died in 1825 and the house was let out for a number of years thereafter.

An advertisement in the Belfast Newsletter of 1829 described the house as "well-known to be one of the most commodious and comfortable in the county, comprising every requisite for the accommodation of a large and genteel establishment" and praised the offices, gardens and situation. Lewis's Topographical Dictionary of 1837 lists R. J. Nicholson as occupier, and the Townland Valuation of 1828–40 values the house and outbuildings at £42, recording a range of ancillary structures including a barn, stables with lofts over, a steward's house, cow house, scullery and turf house. Thom's County Directory of 1850 records Rawden H. Nicholson in residence, and Griffith's Valuation of 1856–64 increases the assessed value to £45, with the valuer noting that the house has "low upper storeys." By that point the estate extended to over 200 acres and was classified as in sound order and good repair.

The first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834 shows the house captioned "Stramore House" within an extensive demesne with tree-lined avenues, field boundaries and areas of plantation, with a plan form similar to that of today. The porch is absent on this map and first appears on the second edition of 1858, which also records additional outbuildings to the rear, a gate lodge at the main entrance, and a captioned "Thrashing Machine."

Annual Revisions show that by the late 1860s the house had passed to Hugh Watson, a linen and cambric manufacturer who, with his brother-in-law, had established the firm Watson, Armstrong & Co. in Portadown. Watson improved the property almost immediately after acquiring it: the rateable valuation rose from £45 to £60 in 1869 and to £90 in 1876. The Victorian remodelling of the house is thought to have been carried out by the architect Thomas Jackson, who was extensively employed by the Richardsons and other linen families in the Gilford area, both to improve existing dwellings and to build new mansions suited to the prosperity generated by the linen trade. Watson died in 1871 and his wife Mary Anne Watson continued to live at Stramore for some years. She advertised the house to let in 1879 as a "superior residence in perfect order," and during the 1890s it was occupied by various tenants including the Reverend Mr Orr and the Reverend Robert Holmes, though these tenants do not appear in the Annual Revisions. Mary Anne Watson died in 1897.

The house was subsequently sold to William Henry Kisbey, a County Court judge from Dublin, who is listed in the 1901 census as living there with his wife and daughter and two domestic staff — a cook and a parlour maid. The 24-room house was designated first class and had 19 outbuildings. Kisbey purchased only a portion of the associated land and outbuildings, reducing the valuation to £68 in 1900; he added a new gate lodge to the estate that same year.

By 1906 the house had passed to David Arthur Sinton (1862–1919), son of Thomas Sinton of Laurelvale, bringing the property once again into the ownership of a family with a linen manufacturing heritage. Sinton was away from home at the time of the 1911 census and only domestic staff were recorded: an English-born housekeeper, a cook and a parlour maid from County Wicklow.

In 1920 Harry P. Watson of Beechpark, Lurgan bought the house back and it passed down within the Watson family, though it was let for long periods. Tenants included Catherine C. Higginson in 1921 and Sarah Stuart in 1936. In the early 1930s, during a First General Revaluation, the house was found to be vacant and its accommodation was recorded as comprising four bedrooms, two dining rooms, three reception rooms, a bathroom, six servants' bedrooms, two cloakrooms, two pantries, a kitchen, two larders, three stores and a scullery. It was described as being in "rather poor repair" and lit by acetylene gas. A valuer noted in 1937 that the kitchen quarters were "of the old-fashioned type with flagstone floors and old fittings," that there was no domestic water supply, and that the last occupier had water carried from a well about half a mile away, with bath water collected in tanks from the roof.

By 1937 the occupier was C. S. Waller Watson (1889–1973) and the valuation was reduced to £76 that year, probably as a result of an appeal.

In 2007 the house underwent a substantial restoration and refurbishment project affecting almost every part of the building, including the construction of a contemporary flat-roofed extension. The architects were Mullarkey Pederson of Derry and the contractors were McCann Bros of Armagh.