17 Tower Road, Ballynagross, Banbridge, Co Down, BT32 4LG

17 Tower Road, Ballynagross, Banbridge, County Down

A symmetrical two-storey three-bay farmhouse erected around 1870, located off Tower Road approximately two miles south of Banbridge. The building retains good historic proportions and style characteristic of small rural houses of its period, though unsympathetic alterations and modifications both externally and internally have compromised its historic and architectural character and integrity. It remains a notable example of a type of dwelling increasingly rare in its original setting.

The house is built to a rectangular plan with a one-and-a-half storey rear return. It is constructed with cement smooth rendered walling and pitched natural slate roofing with clay ridge tiles. Chimneys are rendered with scratch coat finish and concrete caps, with masonry skews. The building currently lacks rainwater goods.

The principal elevation faces southwest and is arranged symmetrically. The front door is centrally positioned with a single ground floor window either side. Three first floor windows are positioned directly above, with a tripartite central window. The left gable contains a single first floor window. The rear elevation is asymmetrically arranged, with a one-and-a-half storey gable-ended return located right of centre. This return features picture windows to either cheek, with a modern timber door positioned right of centre in the gable end and a first floor access door centrally positioned. The rear also contains single ground and first floor windows to the left, and two ground and first floor windows to the right. The right gable is blank. Windows throughout are replacement uPVC with granite cills. The front entrance has a replacement timber door with side lights and a replacement step.

The setting comprises a small garden to the front enclosed by a rendered wall with metal gate. Vehicular access to the left leads to a concrete yard to the rear bounded by single-storey rendered and rubble stone outbuildings, with double-height corrugated metal agricultural buildings beyond.

Historically, the Townland Valuations of around 1830 recorded no houses of merit in the townland, and the farm site was not included in that valuation. The first edition Ordnance Survey map shows a single-storey outbuilding to the east of the current house and an outbuilding to its north side, likely the original dwelling, which was demolished after 1975. According to Griffith's Valuation of 1862, the site was let by the Honourable Robert Meade, the Earl of Clanwilliam, to Alexander Sheppard, a local farmer. Sheppard used the site as offices, valued at £1, while one building was let as a dwelling to Patrick Mellon at 10 shillings annually.

The current two-storey house was constructed in 1873 by Alexander Sheppard at the entrance to Tower Road, raising the property value to £8 10 shillings. Sheppard occupied the dwelling until his death around 1880, when occupation passed to John McBride. The Sheppard family regained possession in 1894 when Samuel Sheppard, possibly Alexander's son, occupied the farmhouse and reduced its value to £7 10 shillings, believing the previous rating too high. By 1898 the value was raised again to £8 10 shillings.

The 1901 Census records Samuel Sheppard, aged 29 and Presbyterian, residing at Tower Road with his sister Agnes, aged 24. The Census Building Return describes Sheppard's house as a second-class dwelling consisting of seven rooms with outbuildings including a stable, cow house, two piggeries and a barn. The third edition Ordnance Survey map first depicted the current house and shows the one-and-a-half-storey rear return had been constructed by 1902-03. By the 1911 Census, the house had been upgraded to first-class status, with Sheppard living alone at that time.

Sheppard continued to reside and work at the farm until around 1920 when Hugh Frazer took possession. The property value was lowered to £7 upon this change in occupancy, and Frazer remained at the farm until the end of the Annual Revisions in 1929. The house was listed in 1977 and continues to be occupied.

Since the First Survey in 1970, the property has undergone modifications including construction of the large modern corrugated-iron barn prior to 1975. The northern outbuilding recorded from around 1830 has since been demolished.