Grange House, Grange Road, Bready, Strabane, BT82 0DT

Grange House is a detached two-storey three-bay former mill house built around 1760–1779, located on the south side of Grange Road in Bready. It is a relatively rare example of an eighteenth-century Georgian house that retains much of its original fabric and detailing both internally and externally. The building follows a typical Georgian plan form, though the sloping topography of the site means the principal entrance is positioned at upper ground floor level, with rear access through the basement or lower ground floor.

The main rectangular block is constructed of roughcast walls with a pitched roof of natural slate and blue-black clay ridge tiles. Corbelled brick eaves course and roughcast chimneys complete the roofline. The principal elevation faces east and contains a central entrance comprising a replacement timber sheeted door with transom light, flanked by 2/2 sliding sash lights, accessed by seven sandstone steps with cast-iron railings and scrolled newel. To the left is access to the lower ground floor. Two windows are positioned to left and right at both upper ground floor and lower ground floor levels; those at lower ground are protected by iron bars. Windows throughout are square-headed timber framed 6/6 sliding sash units with sandstone sills, except where noted otherwise.

The south gable contains two 6/3 sliding sash windows at attic level. At lower ground floor level is a square-headed vertically sheeted entrance door with a canopy of corrugated metal roof. The elevation is abutted on the right by a mill building. The west elevation is abutted at its centre by a stairwell extension containing a replacement timber sheeted door with transom light and a casement window. To the left of this extension, an exposed section features a single casement window at lower ground floor and a sliding sash window at upper ground floor. At centre is a notably large 16/12 sliding sash window at upper ground floor. To the right are a window at upper ground floor and two metal casement windows at lower ground floor. The north gable matches the south with two 6/3 sliding sash windows at attic level and is abutted by a gabled extension with corrugated metal roof and remains of a rubble outbuilding.

The house includes various extensions and additions that appear to have been made prior to 1850. These comprise a lean-to stairwell extension to the west; a single-storey gabled extension to the north; an attached one-and-a-half storey extension to the south abutted by a further single-storey lean-to extension. This attached lower building to the south has two windows at each floor on its east elevation. The south elevation is abutted by a lean-to extension. The west elevation contains two timber casement windows at first floor and a central vertically sheeted timber door at ground floor, flanked by timber casement windows, with a lean-to to the right containing another vertically sheeted timber door.

Rainwater goods comprise cast-iron half-round gutters and round downpipes throughout.

Within the private grounds stand further outbuildings, also appearing to predate 1850. These include a single-storey lean-to limewashed rubble shelter with corrugated metal roof to the south and a single-storey gabled limewashed outbuilding to the south-west, with remains of a rubble enclosure to the north.

Historical records indicate the house was known as Mount Hamilton when marked on Taylor and Skinner's map of 1777, though it became known as Grange from at least 1780 onwards. The Belfast News-Letter records it as standing in 1769, when occupied by an attorney named Thomas Hamilton. He remained there until 1773, after which James Hamilton of Grange appears frequently in Abercorn estate letters from circa 1780 to circa 1795. The Townland Valuation records of 1828–1840 identify Robert McCrea as occupier and list the dwelling measuring 46 by 32.6 by 11.3 feet, along with an understorey on the yard level and various offices, valued collectively at £22 17s 2½d. By Griffith's Valuation (1856–1864), Thomas Hutton Esq. is named as lessor, with the property showing evidence of at least two additions by that time: the main house measuring 48 by 33 by 21 feet, plus additions measuring 19.6 by 22 by 14 feet and 6.6 by 6.6 by 18 feet, with a further small addition of 6.6 by 6 by 8 feet. The valuation records also list two sheds, seven offices, a turnip house, a threshing mill, a piggery, a stable, a hen house, and a gate lodge measuring 24 by 16 by 8 feet, with the buildings valued collectively at £30. William Gamble became leaseholder in 1864–1879, and Robert J. Foster became occupier in fee in 1907. The house appears on the first three editions of the Ordnance Survey map (1832–1833, 1853, and 1905), uncaptioned on the first edition but captioned as Grange House on the second and third, with a gate lodge also noted.

The internal detailing suggests a construction date of around 1760 or possibly slightly earlier. However, the present roof is undoubtedly a nineteenth or early twentieth-century alteration, as the original is likely to have been a higher-pitched double-pile structure.