Ashfield, Laurel Road, Omagh, Co Tyrone, BT78 5DH

Ashfield is a detached three-bay two-storey house built around 1840, located on the south side of Laurel Road in Omagh. It stands as a substantial mid-nineteenth-century building of unusual character for its area.

The house is square in plan with a single-storey lean-to extension to the north. The walls are constructed of tooled sandstone with squared, snecked and coursed stone to the front elevation and coursed rubble to the remainder, finished with red brick dressings and roughcast render which has partially fallen away, revealing the refined original character of the masonry beneath. The roof is hipped natural slate with blue and black clay ridge tiles over a brick corbelled eaves course, with a red brick corbelled chimney.

The principal elevation faces east. The central bay features a timber-framed entrance opening, now blocked, surmounted by a transom light, with a single window at first-floor level. The left and right bays are distinguished by double-height round-arched recesses in brick walling, each containing a single window to ground and first floors. All windows are timber-framed six-over-six sliding sashes with sandstone sills. The south elevation is blank. The west rear elevation contains a central square-headed entrance flanked by single windows at each side, with further windows at first-floor level, though these are now blocked. The north elevation is blank and is abutted at ground floor by the rubble lean-to extension containing two window openings.

The architectural style, though dating to the mid-nineteenth century, is of an earlier period, as are the internal doors, giving the house a plain four-square appearance typical of a yeoman house. The plan form is unusual for its date, with fireplaces located on internal walls rather than gables or cross walls, resulting in a central chimney arrangement. The building may have been designed by an educated person of local importance rather than by a professional architect.

The house sits in a rural setting with a farmyard to the west. The outbuildings contribute significantly to the character of the composition. A single-storey rubble outbuilding stands to the north of the yard with raised stone verges and a roof now removed; its walls feature fieldstone quoins and brick corbelled eaves, with camber-headed window openings set with brick voussoirs. A two-storey outbuilding stands across the yard to the west, pitched with natural slate, with lime-rendered rubble walls to the east elevation, red brick dressings, and timber casement windows. This building is abutted at its west by a single-storey red brick stable block with corrugated metal roof and vertically-sheeted doors, further abutted by a higher lime-rendered bay with slate roof containing a carriage-arch, and adjoined by further lime-rendered stables with natural slate roof, partially collapsed; the rear wall of the stables acts as a retaining wall for land behind. The site is accessed from the north-east, with the yard bounded to the south by rubble walling with rubble coping.

Ashfield first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map of 1853, captioned with its name and accompanied by outbuildings to the north and west. Additional outbuildings appear on the third and fourth editions (1905-6 and 1937-8). According to the Townland Valuation, the house was the residence of William Rodgers, valued at £5 11s 4d, though this may refer to earlier buildings on the site. In Griffith's Valuation, the lessors are recorded as Andrew Rodgers Esq and Colonel J W Fairclough, with the house valued at £7 15s. Annual Revision records show the value rising to £10 10s. The house remained the residence of William Rodgers until it passed to the Galbraith family in 1895, who became owners in fee in 1910. The outbuildings appear similar in style and materials, indicating they were built at the same time as the house itself.